Silly Observations

Happy Halloween!

I give you 'stuff' that I've been thinking of....

• There's a video on Yahoo about a baby's emotional response to his mom singing.  What I noticed is that he tears up (heavily) when she's singing and smiles when she stops.  So is it emotion he is exhibiting when she sings?  Or just a strong desire for her to stop singing?  I don't think his tears are the 'emotion' of hearing his mom sing - I think he doesn't like the sound and smiles when she's done. (She has a beautiful voice).
• If I try and you don't try, that's OK.  I will keep trying.  Until I stop.  I'm pretty black and white that way.  I will eventually stop.  Just so you know.
• It is 7:30 but it feels much later.  I'm ready for the time change this weekend - not just because it will be an extra hour of sleep.  It's dark so early and it makes it feel so 'late'.  I am struggling to stay awake and there are still quite a few kids out and about - dog barking, doorbell ringing.
• We dressed up at work today and it was tons of fun.  I have a really great picture to post but I need to edit it (to blur faces of people who probably wouldn't want their pic on my blog).  We were jellyfish and our costumes turned out so great!   
• In less than two months, we will hopefully be enjoying a long visit with B. .  We haven't heard from him; don't expect to hear from him but know he is OK 'cuz there were some transactions on his debit card in the past couple days.  

That's it for now - tomorrow is November!  Can you believe it?

Oh My Gosh Wednesday

Just because closing docs are signed doesn't mean the deal is done, apparently.  Last night, J. happened to notice an email requesting our full tax returns for 2011 & 2012.  Argh!  Our mortgage payment to our current company is due in a couple days - so now we're sort of in a holding pattern again while we await them actually funding our new loan.  Criminy!  Seriously....argh!

I'm sure it will all work out.

I have been uber productive at work - I am always productive  - but this week, I have been in true 'hunker down' mode - politely but firmly requesting no interruptions as I plow through updating our finance system with the new state funding model as we know it.  It's a lot of 'mechanical transactions' that have to be entered and not the kind of thing to do with constant interruptions.  I think that's often why I go in on weekends - it's quite; no phones; no people; no questions, requests for signatures, etc. .  Just me, my calculator, pencils and paper - and a lot of data entry.  I should have 'people' to do this for me - but we don't - always leanly staffed and that 'tradition' continues.

Haven't heard from B. which is good - no news is awesome at this point.  When the phone rang sort of late last night, I watched the Caller ID with trepidation - hoping it wasn't B. calling.  It was a hotel chain - which made me think 'is he now at the Marriott'?  He isn't.  He's fine though I'm sure he's cold, tired and possibly rethinking his 'plan'.  But he'll stick to it.

H. finally friended us on Facebook.  Finally.  I think it was an appeasement for something he did that was so incredibly gross, I will not write down the details.  Never mind the motive - he did it!  I like seeing his status updates.

He's off today and adjusting to a 4AM start time - where he was told 'if you are late, just forget it - you're done'.  So he's been getting up really, REALLY early to allow plenty of time.  Thankfully, he has been going to sleep earlier so he's getting more rest.

Off to another busy day - work is going 'better' which I say somewhat cautiously.  A little communication goes a long way to mending fences.

30%

Celebrating a lot today!!  First, it's Saturday!  I love weekends!  Forced myself to sleep in this morning and relished the coziness.  It's getting cooler and time to put a blanket on the bed.

We're also celebrating because our house is officially refinanced and our mortgage payment is officially reduced 30%!  We drove to Walnut Creek yesterday to sign the loan documents and marveled at how this process was 30 days vs. the months we spent being jerked around by two 'big banks' who couldn't get their processes together enough to close the deal.  Note to us:  never, ever go through a lender directly.  We used a highly recommended broker and had we gone with him from the start, we'd have been done months ago.  Oh well - we learned.  We are so relieved to have it done and the amount we will save over the life of the loan is amazing.  If rates fall again, we'll do it again.  Turns out my fretting about not qualifying if we didn't have J.'s continuation salary in the equation wasn't an issue - the loan was qualified on my income alone.  So if the rates change again, we could refi again...and that feels really good.  I had been so worried that without J.'s income, we would be 'stuck' in the 5.75% mortgage forever - but we wouldn't have been and aren't stuck even in our new mortgage, should things change.

B. has entered training for his next goal so he is officially incommunicado for the next three weeks. We won't hear from him until November 15th.  He called last night to confirm he was there safely - he couldn't sleep 'cuz of the time change (he's back to being three hours ahead of us in North Carolina vs. the one hour ahead of El Paso).  He is stoked - and nervous.  My anxiety is on high as well - there is a lot riding on this for him and I feel nervous and excited and cautiously optimistic all at once. He said it's not as bad as basic - no yelling (so far) and because all the soldiers there are 'experienced', they are treated more as 'adults' vs. as kids that need to be broken.  Today, they get 'checked in' and tomorrow, they start the training - no pictures; no Facebook page; no updates of any kind.  If he calls between now and the 15th, it will probably be 'cuz something 'bad' has happened - so we hope he won't call instead of hoping he will.

H.'s new job is going great - he was selected for the 'warm' warehouse which he's happy about.  He enjoyed Thursday and Friday off (the first two days in a row he's had off in a couple months) and today, he works five hours instead of ten.  He's enjoying the job.  He will officially be a Teamster!

It was a good week on the work front - though I put over 300 miles on my car and was out of the office more than in.  Lots of meetings at the County Office as well as a workshop in Sacramento. Time in the car with my new boss which was fun - and when I was in the office, there were a gillion meetings about upcoming construction projects.  Busy, busy week and next weeks will be more of the same.

Today, it's stuff around the house - yard work, getting donations ready for pickup (five full bags so far and I'm sure we'll get quite a few more ready today).  I am gently (sort of) nudging my husband to work on his closet 'cuz he has clothes in there he hasn't worn in decades.

Halloween decor also to be done soon...and we need more candy!

Firestone

Bonus!  The ribs have a glaze that requires a dark beer.  J. sought advice at the grocery and bought one large bottle of Firestone DBA (Double Barrel Ale).  We had plenty for the glaze and plenty leftover and it is DELICIOUS!

It's approaching 5PM - ribs will be done in 15 minutes and then we glaze them and cook on high(er) heat another 15 minutes, glazing off and on.  The glaze has crushed sweet onion and ginger (food processor crunch) with the dark beer, molasses, brown sugar, maple syrup and lime juice. DELICIOUS!

We sent B. a pic of them as they went into the oven - and I promised to have these on the list of things we cook when he's home.

I really do enjoy cooking - I love the process - planning, shopping, prepping, cooking and of course the eating.  Probably a good thing I'm not retired 'cuz I'd gain a ton of weight if I had time to cook like this everyday.

Made it into work for a bit so feel good about that, too.

It's nice to be feeling more 'positive' about things in general.

Which of course can only mean something bad is about to happen -

My mind is a marvel of quandary.

B. Update

Enjoyed a fairly long conversation with B. who is getting ready to leave for Ft. Bragg on Friday.  He has a massive list of 'stuff' he needs to have ready and he's out of money - so he needed a loan.  No worries - he is now solvent and will be able to take care of what needs to be done before he leaves.  I don't mind helping him out - he's doing an OK job of keeping track and heck, a year ago, he wouldn't have had any idea how much money he did or didn't have.  So just the fact that he said 'I have $80 left but that's not going to be enough for what I need to do before I get paid again' is a huge, HUGE improvement for him.  Fiscal solvency is a journey - and he's learning.  Glad we are here to help him out when he needs it - if we weren't, he'd be using credit to do stuff and I don't want him to do that. Trying so hard to not have him think credit is a viable option - his credit card is in the drawer of my desk and that's where it's staying.

He will be in a 'lock down' mode for three weeks - they take his cell phone when he arrives and unlike Basic, he says not to expect the occasional call.  He will call when he's done (three weeks later), hopefully with good news.

This new journey he's going on means that while all of his Headquarter buddies were recently deployed out to units, they held him back again.  His commanding officer said they didn't want to hold a space for him when they know he's leaving for three weeks - so once the training is done, he will still be assigned to HQ and have to wait to be farmed out to a unit.  If all goes well, he heads to Ft. Benning (back to Georgia)  for three weeks in May or June and then will be in Ft. Bragg (North Carolina) for a couple years.  We will see.

He is very excited about coming home for Christmas and is trying really hard to get someone (anyone!) there to confirm when he needs to be back.  He has 4 weeks of leave available as well as the Christmas closure time and he'd really like to try to stay home for as long as he can - 3-4 weeks, he says.  That would be lovely -

Thankfully, Southwest doesn't charge a fee for changing a ticket - you just pay the difference in fare should you need to change - which isn't cheap but is better than a fee on top of the airfare change. He's going to try to talk to someone tomorrow and from there, we will just bite the bullet and buy the ticket.  He'll get home - and as military, he can always just 'stand-by' at the airport until they can get him on a flight to where he wants to go.

He is dreaming about being home - lattes, good food, time with friends, maybe some snowboarding.  I asked what things he wants to do while he's here - maybe San Fran for a day; lots of down time...no firm plans and I guess like all of us, that's the best vacation ever - just chillaxing with friends and family while enjoying the holidays.

So instead of heading to work this morning, looks like I will get the ribs in the oven and then head to the office this afternoon for a bit.  A bit of a routine change but oh well - it was lovely to talk to him un-rushed and at a time of day when I'm not struggling to keep my eyes open.

I am really proud of him and happy that he is enjoying what he's doing -

Caesar!

Saturday was a great day - I slept pretty well and far longer than I had Thursday night (yeah!).  Awoke to watch my cooking shows which made me hungry (as they always do).

We had comped tickets to see STOMP! at Gallo Center for the Arts - a show we selected when we won the four sets of tickets in a raffle - but my heart just wasn't in it.  My weekends are just so incredibly precious to me and I didn't want to trundle off for a 3PM show.  So J. went alone and he said after that while he enjoyed it, he thinks I probably wouldn't have cared for it much - I am blessed to have a partner who doesn't mind me claiming my need to 'do my own thing' for a few hours and will happily go do his with no drama.

I did a great job yesterday continuing the great clean-out of my closets, dresser and armoire - five huge bags ready to go and a couple more huge bags well underway.  I feel ashamed of all the 'stuff' but then I feel blessed.  Blessed to have a husband who doesn't judge and just says 'if you don't wear it anymore, it's OK to let it go'.

WinCo shop was also on my list - I procured our 'regular' supplies for the week as well as stuff for dinner last night.  Crafted a delicious Caesar salad from scratch including homemade croutons - and it was one of the best Caesar's I've had in my life (if I do say so myself and apparently, I am!). Delicious croutons; wonderful dressing made with no raw eggs.  Then pasta with Alfredo sauce (which I took major shortcuts with but it was still delicious - translation: sauce from a jar but I jazzed it up with some freshly ground nutmeg).

AND - best of all things - one of the items cooked on the show was short ribs which I've wanted to cook since The Pioneer Woman made them on her show awhile back.  I looked high and low for short ribs that weekend and found none - but WinCo had them - and Amy Thielen made them on her show yesterday morning (Heartland Table - LOVE IT!) so now I can make that for dinner this evening.

After the wonderful meal last night, my cell phone rang - my assistant lives across the street from one of our schools and she said 'there's a fire engine at the site and they used bolt cutters to get into the gate'.  I grabbed my keys and sprinted out the door - kids had set a nylon jacket on fire near a ball wall. The campus is safe and we still had enough chain left to re-chain the gate shut.  Nothing like a fire truck using bolt cutters to jump start your energy level.

Today, I'm heading into my office for a few hours - haven't done that in a long, long time but I'm working on a lot of budget stuff.  I felt so accomplished last week as I did make huge progress during normal work hours but honestly, it was hard.  The regular 'noise' of a group of people doing their thing combined with a job where frequent/constant interruptions are the norm makes accomplishing complex tasks that require calculations to balance and re-balance challenging.  So today, I head in for a few hours of 'just me time' and will plow through massive amounts of stuff that needs plowing.  It's another week of out of the office more than in - so the few hours I spend today will be time well spent.
J. is at church this morning.  H. will enjoy a day off before starting his new job.  Sunday dinner will be in the oven shortly after noon - and  I think another Caesar salad is on the menu.  If they turn out that great every time, I could actually live on them - just add various protein items to the mix.

Which reminds me:  I meant to add shrimp to the pasta last night and totally forgot about it.  Got so lost in the Caesar making that I forgot the protein for the pasta dish.  Oh well.  No one seemed to notice -

Is It Morning?

Or is it night?

I'm up at 3:30.....and I'm sad to admit that actually, I've been awake since 12:45.  Finally just gave up on getting back to sleep and came downstairs.  Chloe is ecstatic - early breakfast and she's back in her daybed sleeping.  I think H. arrived home from work shortly before I came downstairs...so she's been up a lot last night, too, I guess.

I will head in very early today which will be fine 'cuz I need to drive to the county office planning department and submit some paperwork for our construction projects.  Getting in early will let me get meeting prep out of the way and some stuff organized for the day/week.

Happy to report that it's been a fairly 'good' week and that feels good.  Getting into the groove with my new boss.  There's been some humor and fun and we've been plowing through some ideas and things we want to look at doing differently - and while it's work and there's still/always too much of it at the moment, it's 'fun' to have new things to dig into and learn about.

There's also a fair amount of drama most days and that's hard to deal with - but it will all flush out in time.

H. got the job at the wholesale grocer!  He's working for the company - NOT a temp agency.  Ecstatic is his current state of mind.  He more than doubled his hourly wage; the job has lots of potential for salary growth as well as lots of room within the company to move and grow.  This could be his niche - the company has been around for 90 years and hiring people who become long term employees is the sign of a successful business.  It's also union - so the dues out of his check will be 'new' but then again, organized labor has it's place.  We are really happy for him and proud of him!  He starts on Monday and his last day at his current job will be tomorrow night.  He did take Sunday off but he only decided to do that when he found out his reporting time Monday was 8AM.  He couldn't work until 1AM or later and still be at work the next day to drive equipment.  So the day off will be fine -

B. is getting ready to travel to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina for some training.  Three weeks there and then back to Ft. Bliss - then home for the holidays, we hope.  He fessed up to J. yesterday that he needs monetary assistance in paying for a ticket home for Christmas - something that didn't surprise me much since I see his bank transactions.  We'll figure it out.  At the moment, the challenge is:  the Army doesn't tell him when he will officially be released for Christmas - so we can't make reservations or purchase a ticket.  That's a huge problem 'cuz the price increases about $5 a day between now and Christmas.  I'm not going to worry about it - 'cuz we will get him home.  It would just be nice to know so we could buy the tickets well in advance.  Oh well.  It's the Army.

Can't really think about Christmas yet - let's get through Halloween.  I'm attempting to get my team on board with dressing up as a group this year.  We are the only building that doesn't do something - and though I try every year, it's like pulling teeth.  I'm totally fine with wearing my standard - black slacks, black T-shirt with "Happy Halloween" in Rhinestones, orange jacket and a pumpkin necklace that lights up.  But every year we try to come up with a theme - and do something.  I currently have 10 umbrellas in the house for an idea we had - but now no one wants to do that idea.  It's like when the kids were little and I'd order the cutest costume - letting them choose as they got older.  And inevitably, they would change their mind a zillion times - it's so frustrating....

We'll figure it out - and the umbrellas are returnable.

Social and Secure

Dinner on Monday with my friend J. was absolutely lovely - haven't seen her in a year (I checked!) but we just pick up right where we left off.  Updates on our work, our kids, our vacations, etc. . When I shared with her all the things I'm now responsible for in my district (she works for a school district too now - we've both transitioned from corporate life to education as a career - and she gets it) her reaction was priceless and reinforced (for me, myself and I) that I am not crazy in thinking the growing list is insane for one person.  It is insane.  It's the truth.  It is what it is - and I have a bracelet I wear frequently these days that says just that.

Thanks, J. for good company, great food and listening to my ramblings!  Love you!

OK - the past two days now, I have slept in until 5:45...and it feels pretty darn good.  I feel 'late' since I'm not acclimated to getting up that late but I will adjust.  It's a relatively mild week (as weeks go) vs. next week which is back to wild and crazy - so I'm indulging in a bit of extra sleep.  Both J. and H. have colds and my nose and throat have been feeling a little 'off' so I'm hoping to fend off the crud by a little more rest.  We'll see how that goes.

Congratulations to my husband who received his first Social Security payment last night!  Already moved it to our savings account for now since we don't 'need it' until he's officially off severance in December.  It will basically come out of savings in a few weeks when I pay for the Europe trip - so the timing is perfect!

Better head to the shower.  One of the ways I am sleeping in a bit more is to just skip games, etc. - or at least just do them really, really fast - don't linger, read emails, read news, etc. - just get up, cup of coffee, dog routine, check in on games and hit the shower.

Determined

Seemed destined to be a once a week blogger again this week - so will attempt to post today thus making it not quite a week.  Time sure flies by, doesn't it?

I drove all the way to Modesto for a hair cut - since my stylist opened her own salon, I've been trekking there every five weeks.  Every single time I think 'this is the last time I'm doing this'.  It takes at least 40 minutes to get there - today, it took an hour 'cuz of a really bad accident.  So it's an hour there, an hour back and time in the chair.  Thankfully, since giving up color, it's pretty quick.  It was uber-quick this time 'cuz my hair barely grew at all in five weeks.  I had thought that too - seemed like I barely needed a cut and my stylist noticed, too - so that's odd.  Guess it's time to start taking my hair/nail vitamins again.

Exciting news:  out of the blue, H. got a call from a grocery warehouse he applied to in August.  He had a first interview on Friday - and his second interview is Monday morning.  It is NOT a temp agency - it's the actual company.  Pays double what he's making now; union job (welcome to organized labor, sweetie - you will pay dues every paycheck but they negotiate on your behalf and based on the starting wage, I'd say they're doing a decent job of it).  He is very excited - it's a commute to Stockton but the pay differential makes it more than worth it.  Fingers and toes crossed that it works out.

This week, J. upgraded all our flights to Europe for the 'more legroom' option.  Thankfully, the longest flights are configured with two seats on each side of the plan and then three in the middle - so we scored side by side seats.  We can trade off window vs. aisle and neither of us will worry about bothering a seat mate to get up and stretch our legs or go to the restroom.  We are researching things to do and places to go - so far, we're planning a dinner cruise on the Seine and a trip to Versailles.  We are so incredibly excited about the trip - thus making us even more glad that we threw caution to the wind and just decided to 'do it'!!

Work is.... .   Well, it's work.  It's work to get up and get ready.  Work to leave the house and go. Work to make it through a long day of slogging through everything that needs doing.  I'm doing it - no worries there.  But it's work to - well, it's work just to work.  It's an odd frame of mind to be in and there seems to be no abatement to it in site.

B. is on 24 hour 'desk duty' which he hates.  Hoping for a Facetime call tomorrow, maybe.  He is leaving Ft. Bliss for Ft. Bragg in a week or two for a 'special' training that I cannot talk about yet.  He is stoked!

It's getting more Fall like daily and it's nice to have the air crisp in the evenings and mornings.  We continue to work on yard stuff - attempting to get things 'cleaned up' before winter storms set in.  I think we're going to have to hire a tree trimming company to come prune trees this year - our self-pruning has kept them OK for now but it's 13 years of growth and they are getting too high for us to trim on our own.

I am anxiously awaiting a dinner with a friend this week - haven't seen her in ages and can't wait to catch up.  I have so many other friends I am behind on seeing -

I watched the farewell to Cory Monteith episode - and felt like I'd missed an episode.  I hadn't.  I used to watch weekly but haven't watched in awhile - and the show started three weeks after his character's death.  It was sad - and heartfelt - and I started Friday off (I watched it on the DVR yesterday morning) with a good cry.  Felt good.

We are having Taqueria tonight.  Chicken nachos for me, I think.

That's all for now -

A Week of Stuff

Can't believe it's been a week since last posting.  So much going on this week...would think of writing (often in the wee hours of the morning) and then just couldn't get the oomph to start.

That's the kind of week it was - hard to know where to start in many ways.  And hard to get the oomph.

Today, J., H. and I attended the Celebration of Life for H.'s friend who died a couple weeks ago.  The first opportunity to share memories of N. resulted in no one coming forward.  But by the time the sermon was over - given by a pastor who lives in our neighborhood and is a wonderful man of faith who freely shares that with all the friends of his kids - most of the close friends of N. had lined up to speak.  Lots of fun stories; many pictures of N. and his friends as they grew up.  H. was mentioned in the sermon as one of the group of kids that frequently hung out in the family's garage - it was a beautiful service.  Lots of laughter; lots of tears.  Hard for the parents in attendance who watched all those boys grow up say goodbye to one of them - and all of us sitting there thinking 'this could be us'. Losing a child is hard to imagine.

Haven't heard from B. in a week or so - he's been busy.  We did get a picture of him serving as a greeter at a memorial service - and J. cropped it to this:

This picture just makes my heart burst - so proud of him!

J. and I tested our culinary skills and successfully grilled (on the BBQ!) a butterflied leg of lamb! Got the idea from Heartland Table - a new cooking show on Food Network - and it was delicious!  I think my butterflying skills will improve over time and we did finish it off in the oven with the roasted potatoes 'cuz it was getting a little too 'grilled'.  It was delicious.  Leftovers will be turned into lamb stew and/or lamb curry.

Now it's Sunday evening and time to start the psychological exercise of getting ready to go back to work tomorrow.  Weekends are lovely.  Mondays are not.

In honor of N., I am eating his favorite candy - Skittles!  The family had bowls of them out at the services.  I'll never eat them again without thinking of a young man who touched our hearts and
reminds us that life is precious and nothing is guaranteed.  Hug those you love tight tonight and say the things you need to say.  Tomorrow is not promised.

Comfort and peace to N.'s family and friends, including my own son.