Thursday, March 31, 2011

HTML

I am only able to publish my posts in paragraph form by going into html and 'coding' the breaks. So forgive me if I mess up and/or don't post too much. Very, extremely, unbelievable busy at work and my patience for typing over and over is limited. While Blogger doesn't show it as a 'known issue', there are a lot of people complaining about it - for more than a week - and nothing's fixed yet. Maybe time to move the blog to Typepad or somewhere else - but if I decide to do that, you'll be among the first to know.


I AM going to Disneyland next week - turns out they have special conference tickets avaialable so I chose the most cost effective flexible option - no point in buying two to four 'twilight' (after 4PM) tickets and then a full day park hopper for the one full day I will have free (I am staying until Monday so Sunday is a 'fun' no work/no conference day) when for just a few dollars more, I can get a five day park hopper pass and have maximum flexibility! So now I'm starting to get excited!


And already missing my hubby and my kids....especially the hubby. I love him. He irritated the heck out of me yesterday morning and he could have sent flowers to help smooth things over. He didn't. Sure, he called himself a clod in an email that morning - and while that was endearing, it was also an absolutely true statement and one which I already new - because he was a bit of a clod that morning. It's all OK now - I'll be spending that flower money next week in the happiest place on earth.


And wishing he was there with me, no doubt. 'Cuz even when he's a clod, he's still MY clod....and I love him. And when I'm not with him or he's not nearby, my heart is sort of lost without him - it's true when he's away on a business trip or when I'm away from him....I will miss him....


The between paragraph spacing is sort of messed up but I'm going to 'let it go and accept things I cannot change' and hit 'publish' anyway.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Blogspot

is all screwed up....I just posted....but none of the paragraph breaks are 'holding'....and I'm not posting a post that's all smushed together....it's like a run on sentence x 100..... More later I hope. (There's a paragraph break before 'More' but you probably won't see it)....we're alive and well.....

So Slowly

Hi! Remember me? I'm your morning host Majah! Long time no see.... I think that's the longest 'break' I've ever had between posts and I'd love to say it's 'cuz we were traveling somewhere exotic and there was no Internet. But we weren't. We traveled to Coarsegold for our anniversary on Friday but that's about as exotic as we've been....it was fun. 21 years.....wow.....time flies.


We have the slowest Internet on the planet at the moment - I've been blaming it on my poor, defenseless computer - my almost brand new computer - only to have J. investigate and discover that we have about one tenth of the speed we should have. AT&T is all over it - so you know what that means....it will be awhile. We aren't the only people in our neighborhood experiencing this lousy service - I think someone's watching massive amounts of Netflix. Or porn. Someone is hogging all the available bandwidth - and it makes posting blog updates or doing pretty much anything on the Internet painfully frustrating.

All's quiet on the home front which is nice. Now that I've said that, who knows.....but the boys/young men are doing well. School, work, social stuff keep them both pretty busy and occupied. Graduation is approaching for them both - we're on pins and needles, honestly....cautiously optimistic about them both being successful.

H. is doing well with his job and is starting to discover the joy of having your own money. He bought himself a pair of new shoes - Converse high tops....and I think he enjoyed that he bought them himself, for himself with his own money. And while he asked if it was OK to go to the mall and buy shoes, he really didn't 'have to' 'cuz it's his money and other than buying illegal substances, he can do what he wants, pretty much. He's always been the more frugal of the two....

Next week, I travel to Anaheim for a work conference. Leaving early next Tuesday morning and returning the following Sunday - or Monday.....trying to wedge in one 'fun day' of going to Disneyland/California Adventure - but it's not looking likely. I'll enjoy Downtown Disney just as much and it's free - but we'll see. Never say never. The conference and visiting with the architecture firm our district uses (who are in So. California) will keep me pretty darn busy every single day - but I'll wedge in at least a trip to the big Disney store down there....and beignets and coffee at my favorite Downtown Disney restaurant.

Projects include working on our taxes (ugh!) and organizing stuff for a garage sale. If it ever stops raining (which we think it has - knocking on wood), we plan to sell anything not nailed down to raise some fun money for Cancun. We don't need to raise money but we do need to cull around here so it's worth a shot. The weather has been horrible - cold, wet, rainy - for weeks on end lately....but there was sun and blue skies yesterday so we're hopeful it's really going to be Spring like. We could use it -

Time to get upstairs and get clean and dressed for a long work day. I've enjoyed some time off the past month - but now it's nose to the grindstone, full bore, sharpened pencils, new erasers, get to it time - time to work on the 2011-12 budget! Yeah me! The luckiest girl in the world.....truly - thankful for the job that I love and that keeps me motivated and busier than imaginable.

Signing off for now.....hopefully won't be another two weeks between posts but it might....no news is good news. Life ensues.....and progresses....and moves.....entirely on it's own. Some days, I just don't feel compelled to report on it.... But I missed it......so I probably will....it's boring and trivial but it's my life - and someday in the not too distant future, I'm going to love having this chronology of our days.....

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Earth Moves and Water Crashes

With everything happening in Japan, it seems so trivial to write about....well, about anything, really. The events of the past few days truly have boggled minds and left us all in a swirling mass of 'holy crap'. I'm not one for 'doomsday' mentality but yee gads, folks, this is really something.

I learned a lot from these events - for example, how tsunamis can do a lot of damage even when you're not near the 'main' wave action. Santa Cruz harbor has been hit pretty hard - and it was the realization that it was the sudden 'out and in' motion of the water, repeated throughout the day, that caused boats to come loose from their moorings and send them crashing into each other. Also caused docks to come loose, sending more boats loose and crashing....and sinking. Amazing to watch and this 'video age' we live in sure gives a lot of new experiences to world events. Really incredible footage out there on YouTube and/or Internet news in general.

Next we wait to see what happens with the various nuclear reactors that they are unable to cool down. When I read a couple minutes ago that they were resorting to pouring sea water onto two of them - an action that is clearly desperate because they will corrode and be rendered unusable likely ever again - it really made me pause a bit and think 'wow, God....is that you? Is this some message we're supposed to be getting about the state of 'affairs' in our world at the moment? 'Cuz seriously, there's been quite a bit of drama lately - and I, for one, am listening'. At this point, that's about all I can do, pretty much. How fast does radiation travel? They say we (California) will be 'at risk' if those reactors fail and leak. What do we do? Anything? We're 'inland' sort of - but there's water all around us - the Delta isn't too far away....really....

And the economic impact of these recent events is yet another thing that is yet to be realized. Another blow to a suffering, stagnating global economy that seems to suffer yet another 'are you kidding me' every time 'recovery' seems on the horizon.

This is what it's like to live through a time that will be told in the history books (or history e-books when all students have text readers vs. paper books) for generations. The Great Recession is what it's being called....

I'll wrap up my gloom and doom post by saying the days off were awesome. Had a great shopping day on Friday - stayed away from any place I didn't have a gift card - still spent a little bit but not too bad. Decided to use the knife return money to purchase a Cuisinart food processor - it was on sale for 50% off - I've been using the one that is part of the blender but it really doesn't hold enough. My new one will sit proudly on the counter next to my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (Tangerine Orange) and I know I will use it.

I'm reading the 'As Always, Julia' book - the letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto - and am loving it. It's like a blog - and I sometimes have to remind myself that this was in the 1950's - so they were typing every word on those huge, bulky non-electric typewriters. The more I read about cooking, the more I want to cook! The lasagna was FANTASTIC and my only disappointment is that I froze 1/2 the sauce and really should have just made another tray of lasagna and froze that instead. Had enough of everything to do that and am not sure why I decided to just freeze the sauce. But oh well. It was delicious and was even better as leftover! In the book, they talk a lot about cooking gadgets - and both agree that you can get away without a lot of those 'gadgets' as long as you have a great set of knives. Now that we have a great set, I couldn't agree more -

They also talk a lot about frozen foods - which were just 'new' back then. What a concept - to actually prepare vegetables fresh (vs. steaming in a bag in the microwave like we do now)....so much more 'work' in those days to prepare a meal. But that's part of the fun - at least, these days, it is!

Funny coincidence - I was watching Two Fat Ladies right before starting to read the book. And Fat Ladies talked about a 'mooly' (spelled phonetically) and I told myself I needed to look that up - it's like a 'bowl' with 'plates' on the bottom and you put stuff into it and turn the handle and 'grind' stuff or 'grate' stuff with it. And within the second paragraph of the book, they talked about Moulie's - how convenient they were. Guess that was like the 1950's version of a 'food processor', sort of? Need to look for one - but would have trouble finding where to store it at the moment. (And since I just got a really great food processor, what's the point? But Moulie's look easier for quick things you need to grate or mash).

H. worked again today - was out the door and got there by 8AM - which is even more remarkable considering he'd lost an hour of sleep. We went to bed at midnight and he was still up. But he made it! He's working 10 hours a week for now - and that's plenty.

It's approaching 5 - which is actually 4. I'll torture myself like that for a few days and then I'll get over it - it is nice to be on the same time zone as my Arizona family. But losing an hour always sucks. No matter how people try to jazz it up, it is hard and really makes the next week even more of a challenge. If I get up at 4 tomorrow, I will be getting up at 3. If I wanted to attempt to get up earlier....well....that's just insane. So I'd better start sorting through the massive pile of 'stuff' I brought home to sort through - five days always stretch ahead as if anything is possible. And as always, the 'stuff' I brought home is waiting until the absolute last possible minute.

Oh well. Monday will be here soon enough.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Adventure

Enjoyed a trip up to Coarsegold, CA yesterday to enjoy some gambling at a casino there. I took the 'long way' there - not sure why. Sort of realized my car's navigation was taking me on a route that made no sense but felt compelled to follow the directions since I wasn't sure where I was going anyway. It was a beautiful drive - wild flowers everywhere and snow on the hills. Didn't realize until I was within 30 miles of my destination that in just another 25 miles or so, I could have been in Yosemite....so now we officially have plans for our anniversary at the end of this month. We'll head back to the casino, spend the night and spend some time in Yosemite and around that area exploring. By the end of the month, the wild flowers will be crazy with color and the drive will be even more gorgeous.

I didn't win big but I didn't lose too much either. It was a fun day and a nice adventure. Kept my cell phone off for the most part - just one call from my boss' assistant that I only noticed because I had just pulled into a Starbucks for a bathroom and beverage break and noticed she was calling. Transacted quickly (all things - phone, beverage and bathroom) and got back on the road.

The drive home was quicker - took a different route home that we followed when we'd visit J.'s parents. Stopped at the same Starbucks we always stopped at en route and missed them. Really missed them.

J. had decided to also take some time off - he has days he has to use by the end of this month. We have had a running discussion on 'what days should he take off'. I love it when he's here but honestly, when he's here, it's too easy for me to not be as productive as I am when he's not here. I don't know why that happens.....but it's true. So he was going to take off tomorrow and Monday - thus giving me today as an 'alone' day and giving him Monday as an 'alone' day. But when I woke up around 7:35ish this morning, 'lo and behold he was home. Called in sick for the first time in YEARS because he woke up with a hugely sore back. Poor guy. So he's been lazing around a bit, taking it easy - and I've been keeping a little but not too busy.

Went to the bank to return my 'not lost' money - and saw my boss getting lunch at the deli at Raley's.....was relieved he was at Raley's 'cuz he parked next to the nail salon and I thought 'is he so booked that he's now meeting female people at the nail salon to get time with them'? Not so far fetched if you knew him and knew how jammed his schedule is lately....

I am making lasagna Bolognese for dinner - the sauce is simmering away and will cook for at least another couple hours before I assemble the lasagna for baking. We will also have plenty of sauce to freeze which is great! We've been 'living off the land' again and our freezer is getting more and more 'open' so we have room for some carefully placed containers of pasta sauce. Those will come in handy for quick(er) dinners.

Tomorrow I am driving to Walnut Creek, CA to spend my Crate and Barrel gift card and visit the Container Store. Prepare for a weekend of extensive organizing.

We still have the raised beds to finish but won't work on them until J.'s back is in better shape. It was sunny and bright this morning but now a bit overcast and cooler so it's fine that we skipped today. I pulled massive weeds instead....Spring has definitely sprung and the weeds are really something this year.

Have I mentioned the blue jay that is constantly 'tapping' our living room window? I'm sure I have....I've been researching and it's possible she sees her reflection in the window's coating (all our windows have sun-blocking film on them) and is trying to 'scare' her reflection away. I saw her in the tea rose bush out front when I left to run errands and she must be building a nest - she was wrestling with a twig trying to get it into her mouth. We trimmed back the big potato bush in our yard and there are at least three nests in there - but it's so trimmed, I doubt any birds will build there this year...probably next.

I would love a nap but it's a bit late for that. Approaching 4PM and I still have a lot of cooking to do. Have washed all the dog's blankets, etc. Now doing the area rugs from the family room. J. is on a conference call for work and when he finishes, I'm going to vacuum the family room. Then tackle the continuing work on my desk.

Still three more days 'off' and much to do - but it has been very relaxing and was just what I needed!

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Teen Work!

H. had his first day on the job today - the job has been 'in the works' for awhile but I didn't mention it for fear I would jinx it. He is working for someone he met through his AA meeting. This person runs a business out of their home and needs help with shipping orders and maintaining inventory. J. and H. went camping with this person last summer and J. has met him several times - he is a nice man and the business seems to be thriving. He is paying H. $10 an hour and he can work any time he'd like - and H. prefers Sunday mornings and a couple afternoons a week after school. You know H. - the less work interferes with his social life, the better.

The guy will put H. on the payroll so soon, he'll be paid with a check. For now, he's paid with cash and he handed it over the minute he got home. I'm heading to the bank to get our weekly cash and to put his money in his account.

H. doesn't seem all that thrilled with working - but I think once he starts bringing home $80+ a week and realizes he has 'freedom' to buy clothes, etc., that will help with the excitement level. And I'll be excited 'cuz he's going to start pitching in for his car insurance and gas pronto! That will help our budget, too.

The day was cold and rainy so we didn't finish the raised bed. But we had a nice day of piddling around the house, doing odd chores that I rarely get to. We're working on repairing the kitchen chairs - 10 years old and they're a bit 'wobbly'. So we're unscrewing the screws holding the legs to the seat and re-gluing - then re-screwing into the dried glue. Should hold for a bit longer. I've been crossing off things from my massive 'Home To Do' list all weekend - feels good though there's still a lot to do. That's what happens when I've been in 'eat, sleep, work' mode for weeks on end. But we're undigging a little bit and that feels good. We didn't get to The King's Speech because believe it or not, it's not playing near here! We checked a lot of theaters and if we wanted to drive 40 miles, we could see it - but we didn't want to spend time doing that. We would have hit a lot of traffic to/from and driving in the rain just didn't sound like a fun way to spend the day off. So we stayed home and ordered The Social Network on Pay-Per-View....which J. taped and we'll watch next weekend.

I'm still blissfully looking forward to my three days off - just have to get through two days and a board meeting.....I can do it!

Saturday, March 05, 2011

Beds

Last year, I tried to grow vegetables in pretty colorful patio pots. It worked....sort of. We got a couple zucchinis and a few tomatoes. But for the most part, it was a failure. The plants didn't spread as well as they needed to and with no automatic watering system, they took a beating on days when I couldn't get out there in the AM and PM to soak them.

Today, we did what we always do the day after J.'s annual bonus check goes into our account: went out to eat and then headed to Home Depot. Roughly sketched out plans on graph paper [not to scale lest you think we are engineers] and a list of things we needed in hand, we bravely headed to the lumber section of the store. Before getting there, we were assisted by a very tall man (6 1/2 feet is my estimate) who helped us find the drill bit and screws we needed, as well as a carpenter's square. We were sure we had one of those from J.'s dad somewhere but it is not find-able. So we bought a carpenter's triangle which we do not have....and will feasibly use again someday.

I don't like to ask for help at stores. I like to figure things out for myself. J. likes to ask for help - so we followed this giant around the hardware section - gathering exterior screws, etc. - and then headed over to lumber. The hardware guy was very helpful - but I never trust that they're giving us what we need - I think they give us what they think will work - and we're at their mercy. But we took his advice on things and bought what he suggested.

The great guys in the lumber department humored us as we pondered how many 2" x 6" x 16' boards we would need [you would never know I do math for a living 'cuz it was really hard for me to wrap my head around how to figure out how many boards to buy] - and we had to modify our dimensions a bit to avoid having too much leftover wood. We navigated one of those huge lumber carts to the check out stand...and J. grabbed a bag of salt pellets for the water softener. If you ever want to get more help in Home Depot than you know what to do with, be a totally grey haired gentleman lifting a 50 pound bag of salt pellets and see what happens. Immediately, the cashier came running out from behind the cash register and schlepped the bag to our cart herself. The pellets were right by the exit door, about 10 feet from the register. She put it on our cart (after she put it on the counter and rearranged some lumber to make room for the pellets) and then went over and got us another bag. I checked out while J. went to get the car - and pulled up to the door. She had called two guys over who helped load everything into the back of the car for us. Such service! We must have looked like we would both keel over any second of heart failure or exhaustion - the way they sent in the troops to help us....still, no complaints. We were happy to be helped. By the time we got to the checkout, I think it was hitting us both that we'd just bought 64 feet of lumber and planned to put it back together into two rectangle boxes. Yikes! Manual labor! On a Saturday!

We also went to Petsmart for cat litter [right next to HD] and then to Starbucks for a treat. Called H. and asked begged him to come help us at home (he was at a friend's house - where else would he be?) and bribed him with a java chip frappucino. [J. wants me to add that H. came home to help immediately and willingly - we didn't have to plead with him because he wouldn't - we had to plead with him 'cuz we were desperate for help. Poor kid with aging parents]. He helped unload the lumber and helped us create the first rectangle. H. is just so great at those kind of things - steady handed and strong - and then he returned to his friend's house and we were on our own. Sort of comical in many ways - moaning and groaning our way through leveling dirt, leveling wood and me wrestling a drill that I can barely hold. J. swears it's the drill I have since my college days - but no way. This drill is super heavy and very fast and I'm not all that strong. Still, we managed. Team work.....and a good sense of humor for us both got us through.

It is now 5:48PM and it's getting dark. J. is cutting up the two shrubs we removed (to have room for the two beds we're building). We have one bed 1/2 done and we probably should finish it ('cuz it's supposed to rain tomorrow) but I'm beat. That, and I have a huge amount of our New Zealand Tea Rose bush in my pants and underwear and no matter how many times I try to get it all out, it's still sort of prickly. I need a shower!

We will hopefully finish tomorrow and still wedge in The King's Speech.

Weekend Bliss

This is my first weekend off in forever - and I left my office yesterday afternoon practically drunk with joy. Not literally drunk - but felt the same sort of 'buzzed' feeling. Anticipating a lot of sleeping in and just chilling with my family....oh how I've needed a break.

And the best part is, I have totally cleared my calendar for three days next week and will be off W-Th-F as well - it's been hard to do....meetings flow in all the time and I've been politely declining. My boss even sent me a note that said 'good girl' upon seeing that I declined an invite to be included in a conference call that would occur during my days off. I could (easily) join the call from home - or from wherever I may be on that day and time - but I declined. They can relay info via my boss and I'm good with that. If I don't attempt to 'draw the line', the line will continue to be a blurry, non-existent mess - which leaves Majah a bit blurry and bleary and cranky.

My plans for this weekend and the five days 'free' next week include a massive list of 'stuff to do around the house' and errands, etc. to run. We returned the knife set we bought from Crate and Barrel and they sent us a gift card instead of crediting our account. Sort of bugged me but oh well - an excuse to go shopping. The nearest C&B is 40 miles away so I'll make a day of that shopping trip and it will be fun. Treat myself to a lot of Starbucks and lunch along the way.

I also want to head to somewhere for penny slots and fun. Not sure which casino I'll visit - there's one I've never been to but it's an hour further each way and I don't know if I want to spend the time or gas to get there. We'll see.

The best part of knowing time off is ahead is just the freedom of having all that time to fill....it's a relief to be 'work-free' for a bit. And I wrestle with myself 'cuz I have so much to do - I really shouldn't be taking time off - but I have to. I am tired. I have worked way too many days the past couple months and it's ridiculous to keep making work the priority. Work will keep. I tell my team that all the time - yet fail to do that for myself. So I'm working on improving the 'balance' as best I can. And my boss is realizing that change is important 'cuz he doesn't want me to burn out. Neither do I.

It's a beautiful sunny, clear day here today and we're heading outside to plan out some raised beds we're building out back. We're going to take our vegetable garden to a new level this year, I hope....

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain a bit (again) so we're planning to go see The King's Speech. J. and I haven't been to the movies together since forever so it will be a nice, fun treat to spend time with my sweetie watching a good movie and eating popcorn. And Milk Duds. Can't forget the Mild Duds.

I have one full 8 1/2 x 11 page of 'to-do's' so I'd better get to doing some of them.

Happy blissful Saturday to all!!!

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Tuscan

I'm into another cooking show - Extra Virgin. It stars Debbi Mazar and her husband. He is full blooded Tuscan Italian and the two of them are a hoot....it's a fun show and the dishes they prepare look delicious.

I don't know what possessed me but I got the crazy idea around 3PM yesterday to make a meal I saw on that show for dinner last night. I left my office at 4:30 and headed to the grocery store - spent $45 the fix-ins for the dinner with a few 'leftover' supplies. Fresh vegetables are expensive - $9 for three bunches of spinach. From the minute I walked in the door until 6:15, I was cooking up a storm. Many, many steps, including a lot of chopping, food processing, rinsing fresh spinach, taking the stems off, blanching the spinach, making home made spaghetti sauce (red sauce - simple, no meat and delicious!). The dinner was good - but wow, what a lot of work. I was sweating up a storm (not a bad way to 'exercise') and finally had to call in reinforcements and beg H. to come home (he was at a friend's house) and help me. Thank goodness or we would have been eating around 8.

I'm eating leftovers now and they are delicious!! So we got two meals out of it and there's still enough ingredients to make more sauce.

So much going on in the world, huh? With all the significant world events, it seems silly to mention this - but I must: Charlie Sheen is an ass. Even if - by some miracle - the show comes back, I'll never watch it again with him on it. Even more than thinking he's a jerk - I honestly think he is emotionally unstable. Seriously - unstable. That's not addiction talking - it's something besides that. Something in addition to that. Psychosis possibly.

Busy week ahead....

March

I'm starting to think maybe I will just do a monthly post and call it what it is - whatever month we're in.  Here we are winding dow...