Pengle

I play games on Facebook...and I know some of you will be like 'what a total waste of time'.  Or 'people who spend time playing games are just lame'.  Or 'she complains how busy/swamped she is but she wastes time playing games?'.  

I have given up games that felt like they were sucking the life out of me.  I looked forward so much to the first Farmville 'new' farm - and it was fun for awhile.  There are now 20 or so 'farms' and there was no way I was going to invest my time on that game anymore.  Around the fourth one - all with separate 'missions' and goals - I was done.  I tried to just 'farm' for awhile - but even that was overwhelming.  It stopped being mindless and fun and started feeling a lot like work.  

I play because they help me decompress a bit after days that are very full.  I play because I think some of them help me think and plan and keep 'sharp'.  Time management games are not easy and I like them.

Pengle is a match three game that I've played for awhile.  I tried Candy Crush for awhile - but it's impossible.  Or feels that way.  Pengle is tough and I play some levels over and over.  And then, something will happen and you'll do something that gives you a boost or something that helps and ta-da!  A level you've been stuck on for a week or more is suddenly done - things just come together and everything works and you've completed the goal and are able to move on. 

Tonight, that feels like a life lesson.  I need to remind myself.  Sometimes, you stay stuck for a long time.  You try different things and they don't work.  You try new things and they don't work either. But if you just keep playing and trying, things will work out.  They really will.  Pengle helps me with that. Gives me a win now and then even if I've been stuck for a long time.  

Two more days and those days feel like an eternity.  I've come to the conclusion that the issue is having our holiday party on Friday evening.  It feels so 'hard' to work the long week and then leave work and essentially go to work for another couple of hours.  All I will want to do is just go home.  B. arrives Friday night and J. will leave to get him around the time I'm getting home.  I want to wait up for them to be back but geez, it's going to be really late.  It will be fine if I go to bed 'cuz I will see him Saturday morning - and the first hug is the best thing ever regardless of when it happens.  

I have made huge, massive progress on culling out my office.  It feels so good to let go of so much stuff that's just been piling up.  It feels great to have a little time to breathe.  To take the time to do this massive reorganization and cleaning is something I've only been able to dream about - or think 'I'll come in and do it on a weekend'.  But I've put many hours in on the project this week and clearly, one weekend wouldn't have been nearly enough.  It's wonderful to feel like I can do my job and still have a life.  I get to work between 7:30 and 8 and leave by 5.  Some nights, I'm out by 4:30ish.  It's nice to have a life.  

H.'s scan went well and he survived a no-carb day.  Now we wait until Tuesday to hear how it looked. As always, waiting is hard.  I feel on pins and needles about it - and I'm glad the phone hasn't rung with any 'please rush into the office ASAP'.  

Survivor finale also has us on pins and needles this evening.  

Should have named the post Pins and Needles - 

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Two days down and three to go!  Been pretty busy and the days are moving pretty quickly, so it's officially on the downhill side towards the break.  The entire district feels like pins and needles...everyone just waiting...and waiting.  It's getting closer.

I was supposed to head to Brentwood this evening for dinner with a friend.  The day here was weather free - sunny and bright blue skies with some streaky, white clouds which only provided contrast to the deep blue of the sky.  Not a drop of rain in site.  At 4PM, I headed out to the restrooms before heading on my drive there and saw the huge, HUGE black clouds coming in from the west.  The next storm front was coming and it was as big as the forecasts had said it would be.  I quickly texted my friend (who had already been warned that if it started to rain, all bets were off 'cuz I'm not a fan of making this drive at night even without the pouring rain) and we rescheduled for lunch on Monday.  Margaritas at noon!  We're both on vacation from our 'school' jobs so it's totally do-able.

And it is POURING right now.  Really, really coming down hard.  Which is awesome!  We need it. It was the right call to not do dinner 'cuz driving home in this would be awful.

I'm adding rain boots to my shopping list this weekend.  I've never had any.  Do you buy them to fit over your shoes?  Or do you wear them and carry your regular shoes in a bag and change when you're not sloshing through puddles?  It's so wet that my regular flats (sturdy and comfy) feel risky 'cuz one wrong step into a puddle of any size and I may end up soaked.

Another dinner with other friends is scheduled for tomorrow.  Then getting through a couple meetings on Thursday.  Friday will be wrapping things up; setting out of office messages; and our work Christmas party.  I'm not particularly excited about having to go somewhere at the end of the longest week ever - I just want to go home - but oh well. I co-host with my boss and it's usually pretty fun. Once I get there...it will be fine.

I did manage to do some wrapping last night.  Small steps make me feel so accomplished...and then make me want to spend the next day at home piddling - and of course, I can't.

H. had his PET scan this morning.  He survived all day yesterday with only protein.  No carbs or sugar of any kind.  He drank unsweetened iced tea and water all day, too.  The scan was done and we didn't get any frantic call from the doctor, so that's good.  Now we wait one more week to find out how the scan looked.

The last episode of The Newsroom aired on Sunday.  So sad the show is over.  It was great television and we will sure miss it -

Tweety-Like

My sweet husband went upstairs to get a sweatshirt for me to wear.  It's freezing cold...after a week of crazy weather, it feels like we will never be warm again.  Lots of rain, some wind.  It was the storm of the century though it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Lots of schools in the Bay Area closed but here in the Central Valley, we stayed open.  Unfortunately, parents decided to keep their kids home anyway (WHY?!) so now we research options to hopefully not lose a ton of money as a result of them deciding to take 'rain days'.  Totally unnecessary rain days.

The sweatshirt he chose is the bright yellow hoodie - so I put the hood up and pulled the cord and am sitting here like Tweety Bird (or maybe Big Bird minus the height) trying to stay warm.  Maybe we should splurge on some heat.  :-)

It's the weekend before the last week of school and then THE BREAK - which I put in all caps 'cuz that's how it feels this year.  So, so ready for a break.

I spent the week productively and filled my recycle bin three times with stuff that I'm culling out.  It's a long overdue massive cleaning out of files, etc. - and it feels so good to have the time to do that! And it's also so helpful to know that things that remain are things that need to be there.  Construction results in just so much stuff that accumulates - so it's great to have it organized and reduced a bit.

The upcoming week includes several night events - holiday gatherings and dinner with friends before the break.  It will go quickly.

B. will be home this coming Friday - can't wait to have him home for two weeks!

Errands to run, things to wrap, etc. will fill the weekend.  Looks like possibly more rain and that's fine. The errands can keep if needed and it will be a fun day/weekend of cocooning at home.  I ordered a variety of Keurig pods including some decaf herbal teas (for evening consumption), hot chocolate and hot cider!

Happy Sunday!  We're watching Hunt for Red October on casted Netflix (on J.'s computer but playing on the TV).  Slow, easy morning.  Heading out for errands soon.  J. will go with 'cuz shopping is easier with two.  Probably another stop at Starbucks - have two free drinks on my card and a coupon for another free drink.  Two extra stars for purchasing a treat today, too - so perhaps a Snowman cookie.

I am promising myself I will get to wrapping once we're home from errands.

It's so darn cold....I hate the thought of getting showered and dressed 'cuz I dread the freezing shivers that happen no matter how toasty warm the bathroom gets.

Sadly, we cancelled our pending Luna Encantada trip officially by requesting a refund of the 50% we left on deposit.  It was sad to do that - because it acknowledges we don't have plans to go there anytime soon.  Not this summer, at least.  But it's the thing to do.  The owner of the condo we rent was kind enough to refund the full amount - I think we cancelled with enough notice in the Spring that she had no problem renting the unit during the weeks we would have been there.  Still, I was expecting her to withhold one night as a cancellation fee so it was nice to see she didn't.

It makes me a little blue to acknowledge no beach in the near future but we will go again.  Just have to give ourselves a little time.  If we make the trip to Europe in March, that's a huge trip and should suffice for a couple years, at least - while we build up our savings again.

Once you get the travel bug, it sure is hard to get rid of it.

The movie is winding down.  I'd better get moving.

Monday, Monday

La la.  La la la la la....

I am sorry that song will now be in your head all day.  Or all night.

While it started off slowly, it picked up the pace (as did I) and we made it through a day of getting a lot of pending little things taken care of.  My assistant noticed the pace shortly after 10AM when her box kept filling up every hour or two with little things for her to do, too.  Felt good to see wood and to plow through things.

One of my strengths is that as I do one thing, it quickly leads me to think of others that need doing and one thing follows another and before I know it, what seemed to be a blase day turned into jam packed. Which is great 'cuz I'd rather be plenty busy than just hanging out.  And I accomplished a variety of things that needed doing; cleaned off a bunch of stuff that is done and over and strategized for 'what's next' after the little things are done and I still have all next week to fill before the break.

Thought the dishwasher was broken this morning but we think it was just a pan blocking the jets.

The wine last night felt like it would lead to stellar sleep but it didn't.  Something about wine winds me up, I guess?  'cuz the night was fitfully non-sleep filled.  Maybe it was my brain.

I had weird dreams that upset me - and then I dreamed about being upset.  Long night.

Tonight, I invented a new dish - a cream sauce and real pancetta (the pie place in Stockton has delicious diced pancetta which is really hard to find) made with the leftover wine and leftover heavy cream tossed with whole wheat spaghetti.  LOL - all that cream with whole wheat pasta.  I know.  Pointless.  But delicious.

So we're enjoying another bottle of wine this evening.  Practice makes perfect.  Only problem I see with this plan is the wine is about $12 a bottle - times 30 days in a month.  That's a healthy amount to budget for wine.  And we don't.  Maybe someday?  But now, no.  Feeding the 21 year old bottomless pit who lives with up eats up the wine budget.

J. will speak to the travel agent tomorrow and point out that moving our air reservations a couple days earlier saves $1800 in airfare....just letting him know that our dates are pretty flexible.  And it looks like we're going to add a day to ensure that J. and H. have enough time in Rome to enjoy the experience - vs. just racing from place to place to get it all in.  I want to be sure we allow time for H. to rest - he won't sleep on the plane (he says he won't, anyway) and I don't want him to start the trip exhausted.

It's only money.  We can't take it with us and we've saved most of our lives - so in 2015, we're cashing in some assets and not scrimping on this two week plus journey with our youngest son.

Nine days to go!  Let's do this thing!  I have so many things to do tomorrow, the day will fly by. Though board meeting days are long.  Always long.

Olivia-Like

Grappling with the two weeks looming in front of the two week break...two weeks feels like forever. Hoping the weeks go quickly?  'cuz it's torture to think of the ten work days stretched out in front of me.

I'm feeling very Olivia Pope-like as J. and I enjoy the first bottle of our case order of V. Sattui Gamay Rouge.  Seriously one of the best wines ever and I can see this becoming a regular thing.  Enjoying the slight 'lightness' feeling induced by wine as we ease into Sunday evening.  I guess I should go make dinner before I'm too woozy to cook.  We're having Teriyaki Chicken sandwiches - a take on the Red Robin Teriyaki Chicken Burger that I adore.

Side note:  Red Robin is open here in town now!  We haven't ventured there yet 'cuz like all new Tracy restaurants, the wait is ridicules.  But we will get there!

J. and I have been working with the travel agent who handled the Europe Groupon trip we took last year and are looking at taking another trip in March again.  This time, taking H. with us.  I gave him a heads up that we were thinking of it to be sure he was interested in going and he was very enthusiastic in his reaction.  Now, we just have to work on understanding what the travel agent has set up.  It's a bit more expensive than we thought - but we are asking him to book us in Premium Economy on either Virgin Atlantic or British Airways.  Not much more than we would pay with upgrading to the more legroom seats.  That part is going to be a surprise to H. .

The plan is for H. & J. to go to Rome for a few nights and I will stay in London for a few days. We all fly into London from SFO then J. and H. head to Rome.  I stay in London for a few days alone (I can't tell you how excited I am about that!!  Shopping!! Or at least window shopping!)  Then we meet in Paris for seven nights and we end with a few more nights in London together.

We will see if it all works out.  Still a lot of logistics to finalize and then have to figure out how to pay for it.  No worries there - just have to decide what account to dip into.  And we won't finalize arrangements on the trip until we see the oncologist on December 23rd.  H. seems fine - but he is running 'hot' a lot lately - sleeping with the fan on high in his shorts with no covers - and it's winter here and our thermostat is set for low 60's in the night.  I worry about that.  We will see.

My husband just made me still happier by asking 'would you like to go to Disneyland Paris while we're there'?  Um...YES!!  I am in turn agreeing that IF we do Disneyland Paris in 2015, we will forgo our every five year trip to Disneyland California - though we go there on the '5's' to celebrate that parks every five year anniversary.  But yes, to be in Disneyland Paris for a day or two, I will skip driving down to the Southern California and spending money to be there.  We will call it 'done' in exchange for one or two days in the Paris park instead!

And (while I wish he would surprise me), I also stated that I want to go to Tiffany's Paris on our 25th anniversary where I would like to select a Sterling Silver bauble.  Silver is the 25th anniversary 'gift' and I'm sure I can find something lovely that's well within our budget.  I'm just the kind of girl that likes to say what she wants to avoid any disappointments.  Maybe he would have done it anyway?  But now we will!!  I've coveted something from Tiffany's for a quarter of a century - and now, I will get something.  And maybe he will, too!  Lots of fun things in that store for both of us!  Silver keeps the cost to within our budget - even flying all the way to Europe to make that dream come true.

He will make me the happiest person on earth with this trip - 25 years from the day that was the happiest of my life.

Wow...this wine is really good.  I'm ready to go to bed.  It's not even 6PM yet -

Pondering

Is it merely coincidental that my current favorite nail polish is Margarita?

The High Cost of Gambling

H. lost a bet with a friend and this is the result.

The deal is he has to retain the flaming red hair for 24 hours - but it sounds like he's going to let it grow out a week or so and then buzz cut it off.

He's being a good sport about it - it was blonde before the red was applied.  Goofball.  Don't make stupid bets with your friends.

It could have been worse 'cuz for a day or two, H. was the person shopping around for the products required to create this look - until I said 'make your friend's girlfriend - the one who was going to cut your hair and apparently has some hair styling training - obtain the correct products for the job.  Not pay for the products - H. did that - but at least know what to buy.  A two step 'bleach then dye' isn't something a 21 year old guy should be shopping at Target for, right?

I got up close to a full hour earlier this morning and here it is 6:30 and I'm still not showered....the time just passes with my morning routine - easing into a busy day.

Got to get going 'cuz it's already Thursday (this week has flown by) and I still have a massive amount of board prep to accomplish by noon tomorrow.