3-Day In Progress

The best part of the Sunday on a 3-day weekend?  Knowing you still have Monday off.

TONS of rain last week.  I felt like Obi Wan Kenobi all week as I shunned umbrellas (I think they are pointless and hard to wrestle with) and used my coat with a hood.  My peripheral vision sucked and my hair took a beating but I stayed reasonably dry.  J. had to drain the pool again and the backyard is a wreck from wind.

Our neighbor had their HUGE fruit trees topped off (they were 20 feet high which is totally 'wrong' for fruit trees) - the prior neighbor loved their 'height' but they were incredibly overgrown.  We are loving the additional light in the yard now - those trees are on the west side of our backyard so we missed out on a lot of sun with the trees blocking the light.  Now I want to get the podacarpi (it's probably not the plural of podacarpus but it's close) re-trimmed.  The company who did them last time convinced J. to just 'thin them out' - but they are also very overgrown and way too high.  We'll have to save up a bit to make that happen but it's on the list of household projects needed.

The house is 16 years old and there are a LOT of household projects needed.

Another week zoomed by and good news!  Our teachers did ratify the agreement - everyone is so excited.  Everyone but ME 'cuz I know what is now involved in getting the retro set up; setting up the new ongoing pay rates and then the public disclosures showing the cost of it all over a three year period.  And by bargaining unit - so three sets of report.  Yeah me!  (Not).  Next to building the budget, disclosures are the hardest thing I deal with in my job - they are laborious, complex, challenging in ways the are impossible to describe and just awful.  But they have to be done and they will be.

I went to Thunder Valley today for a little fun - and I hit a couple good jackpots - but put it all back chasing after a major jackpot.  I am very proud of myself for taking a very limited amount of money and was also glad that I stuck to taking a very limited amount of money 'cuz if I'd had all my fun money with me, I might have kept trying.

I stopped on the way home for Dave Wong's Chinese food for dinner.  I was AMAZED on the drive home how much water there was.  Bridges over usually dry beds were at capacity - water everywhere in many areas.  Fields flooded.  Any place water could pool, it did and it was the most I've seen in ages and ages.  It was an awesome drive and interesting to see how different things look.

The Atlantis Casino in Reno finally confirmed my air reservations for a flight there on Friday - returning Sunday.  Suite accommodations!  Free play!  And when I inquired about the shuttle from the airport to the casino, my hostess (Jenny) said 'we will send a driver for you'.  Nice!  The ONLY reason I'm going is 'cuz they offered to fly me there - we can't drive up there at the moment without having snow chains with us and I don't like driving on ice AT ALL...so.  If we don't fly up, we are likely not going.  We do have reservations at the hotel for the weekend after as well - but that trip will entirely depend on a) is there any fun money left to play with AND can we get there given the weather conditions that weekend.  (I don't think we're likely to go up that 2nd weekend - it's a 3-night stay and that seems a bit too long without a ton of fun $ but we'll see.  I might hit it big next weekend thus making it entirely possible).

The upcoming week is only three days for me - but it's a doozy of a three days.  Up to Sacramento on Tuesday morning for a budget workshop then back to Tracy to finish a long day - board meeting night.  Wednesday is another 'night' commitment with a parent meeting - it was originally scheduled for the 19th but I mentioned to my boss that I was leaving town on Friday and didn't think I would make that Thursday night meeting.  He came to my office 20 minutes later and said 'I moved the parent meeting to Wednesday'.  'I don't know whether to be flattered or appalled', I replied.  'Be flattered - I appreciate you being there'.  So two night meetings - and then Thursday is another long day 'cuz we have a 3:30 meeting that usually goes until after 5.

This past Friday, I went to the Gallo Center with a friend to see pianist George Winston.  His Pachelbel Canon in D is one of my lifetime favorite pieces - he didn't play it - but in his defense, he may have played it - my friend and I left at intermission.  Turns out that a pianist (with quite possibly the least dynamic personality of anyone on the planet - no personality at all) playing for 1.25 hours (before intermission) can end up being something not all that entertaining.  He did some songs that were pleasant - but there was one piece where he was using his hand in the actual piano to 'stop' the strings - and he did that note over...and over....and over.  At intermission, I asked my friend 'so what do you think?' and she said 'what do you think'?  And we both sort of simultaneously confessed that if he had played that note again, just one more time, we both felt we might have lost it.  She said she kept thinking 'don't look at M. ....don't look at M. ....' 'cuz we probably would have burst out laughing.
So we left.  And I watched him play the canon on You Tube - it was a few years ago (he had a lot more hair in the You Tube video) - and it was beautiful.

I want to play the piano more.  OK - that's not true.  I want to play the piano - now.  Ever.  Soon. Often.  It sits in the living room - and I should play.

J. has a bad cold and H. went to the doctor this past week - ear infection, throat infection and a bad sounding chest.  Antibiotics for H. - he's feeling better, I think.  We'll see how J. is on Tuesday - he may need pharmaceutical intervention as well.

On that note, we are heading up to bed early (for a non-work day).  Tired and ready for a good night's slumber.