![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood:
tired - Music:ummmm...did you PLAY the selection above??
You will find your solution where you least expect it.
Too bad it didn't say WHEN I'd find it!
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Mood:
amused - Music:the 4:30 crew saying g'nite to the rest of us still on the clock
I have a similar issue with the desk and files at home, though the file cabinets are essentially empty. I just need to find time (or TAKE it) to set up the file system for the salon, the farm, the trailriding business and our personal stuff, then put things where they go. It sounds easy, but for some reason it isn't.
Then there's the paper I have to generate for the trailriding business...policy and procedure manuals, safety procedures, release forms, helmet release forms...the list goes on. I also have to sort thru all our pics for various shots of the horses, take some new photos that include Shelby (the new Tennessee Walker mare), and set a time to work with my webmaster to get the page properly set up.
I'm going to have to just block some calendar time...and drag the recycling bin over to my cube, roll up my sleeves and clear things out. As for the home stuff....it's supposed to rain all weekend, so perhaps tomorrow will be my day to get a little further on that project.
Or I could just do it the easy way with a match or two....
- Location:heading to the store to get marshmallows...
- Mood:
contemplative
...my kitties all want to be inside and cuddling with us! Even Sylvia--my independent little grey Manx--is in and is happily purring on my lap as I type this.
Headed for bed....here's hoping I get more than the 4.5 broken up hours of sleep I got last night/this morning.
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood: happy
- Music:the hum of the dishwasher and the purr of Miss Sylvia
Ok so maybe "is" would be the more proper tense for that verb. We've got wind gusts expected to be in the 45-55 mph range, with sustained winds at 25-30 mph. Seeing as how 55 mph is the speed limit on many highways....that's fast wind! I can hear it blowing out there...when I was in the kitchen prepping tomorrow's potluck offering, the wind was rattling the screen door. It's out of the south (thanks California!) and the screen door is on the north side of the house...I'm just glad the wind isn't coming THROUGH the house.
So far there have been no "bumps" in the power...let's hope the maintenance that was done late in the summer will protect the power lines from tree limbs and such and we'll miss having a power outage tonight. At least, let it wait til I get to bed...which won't be for at least another 45 minutes (late night tonite!).
Tomorrow's potluck is one of my favorite events. It's the November meeting of "my" Counselors for the Deaf--about 12 of us all told--and since we have our meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, it's always the week before Thanksgiving. One of the counselors roasts a turkey for the event and hauls it up from Eugene (an hour and 15 minutes south of Salem for those of you with a penchant for maps or driving times). She brings a tablecloth, decorations, the whole 9 yards. The rest of us fill in the meal and gather 90 min early so we have plenty of time to eat and talk. I'm trying a new recipe this year...something I got off a Facebook group I'm in (Stir it up little darling--feel free to join!). Acorn squash and Fuji apples, baked with butter, brown sugar, a little flour and some salt. Things I've learned tonight....peeling a raw acorn squash takes a LOT of time....and doing two means LOTS and LOTS of time. The second one doesn't go much faster, but the compost bucket gets filled quickly. I'll use a smoother skinned squash next time...maybe a Delicata. Starting at 9:00 PM likely wasn't the best idea, but we had dinner plans with a friend (Mexican food...I had a cheese enchilada with mole sauce, a chicken enchilada with a little cream sauce and some rice...and one margarita. Decadent, but worth it.). So I couldn't have started earlier. Thank goodness Jahn helped with some of the peeling and did all the apple coring. I like cooking with him when neither of us is rushed.
J threw in the towel as soon as the baking dishes hit the oven. So now I'm up by myself, waiting for the 2 pans of stuff to finish baking (and I'm starting to smell the combination of squash and apple here at the front of the house, so we're making progress!). Once they're done, I'll dump them into my CrockPot and put it on warm...then head for bed. If I have time (and am not chauffeuring my boss to the meeting--he was invited as well as the person who does his job in the northern part of the state and the Agency Administrator) I'll stop off at the natural foods grocery and get some slivered almonds to sprinkle across the top. The recipe calls for another nut, but I like almonds better. If I can't get 'em, it's no great loss.
The wind is picking up and Dillon's about on my lap now, so I'll quit for now. Hope everyone's Tuesday is off to a good start (or a good end, depending on where on the globe you call home).
- Location:Mill City, Oregon
- Mood:
creative - Music:the wind outside
I'm looking forward to having a quiet day at the desk (ya hear that, world?? A QUIET DAY!!) and getting some projects completed. We're going to dinner with friends tonight--a monthly date. That's always fun too. I have no idea where we're going, so it'll be a nice surprise when Jahn picks me up after his haircut.
I made a KILLER soup last evening....roasted squash, pear and ginger. That soup cookbook we got as a gift has been outstanding! And I'm finding I really LIKE making soup. Lots of steps, but the outcome is so great...especially on a blustery fall/winter day. Unfortunately, it was so good that it is GONE (we DID have friends over who helped eat it)....so I have to buy lunch today.
OK...break is over, so I'm gonna plow into the pile of stuff that's in front of me! Have a good day, all!
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Mood: cheerful
- Music:the hum of the printer 2 cubes away
This adventure killed the morning completely...so it's only a half-day of work for me today! YAY for super-short weeks and toeses where they goeses!
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Music:office sounds
I sorted thru 2 fileboxes of random paper from 2002-2009, filled a paper grocery bag (to overflowing) with papers and such that can be burned next time we have a bonfire (soon, hopefully), and put the rest of 2007-08 into a file box of its own. I also got the bookshelf tidied (though the books are not sorted by category...that's another rainy weekend's work). And I got the toolbox (which should go out in the woodshop/kitty room, but seems to live in the office) set to rights after it had been knocked off the futon and spilled across the floor (thanks, Dillon!). You can actually see the floor in there! It's amazing.
There's still a lot to do--the 2009 and "permanent file" stuff needs to be sorted and filed. The "stick this into the file cabinet for now..." stuff needs to be pulled out and sorted. The futon needs to be moved back into a couch, not out in bed formation. There are miscellaneous hairstyling tools and one of those propane-fueled weed flamethrowers on the floor behind the door that need new homes. And there will be several things to donate to charity (as well as some clothes that I've had stacked up in my room for months, but that's another story). And then there's the desk...which is frightening to everyone but Gavin, my white Manx cat, who has created a nice nest in the papers there, and who has no compunction at all about twisting my monitor out of alignment so he can put his head in *just* the right spot. He got pretty irritated with me when I started iTunes on random shuffle last night...the speaker was right by his ear. He settled down though--and just in case anyone is wondering, his favorite piece was from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto; his least favorite was some hip-hop/rap thing that Jason (my son) gave me a copy of when he was last here. For the record, I didn't like that piece either!
Today at work, I've got a few projects going...and am waiting for data to be able to finish any/all of them. I'll start hassling people in a bit, if I need to. It's an odd week...two days working, Wednesday off due to Veterans' Day, then 2 more days working. I'm hoping to get a couple of things completely crossed off my list before the end of the day Friday. At the moment, the odds look pretty good for that.
My only complaint today is that the ball of my right foot (specifically the head of the 2nd metatarsal) is KILLING me. It started a few days ago...doesn't matter what shoes I wear, or even if I have shoes on at all....it still hurts. Feels like there's something "clicking" in there as I walk on it...almost like the joint is rolling/popping. It's weird. I happened to have an appt with my podiatrist this morning and he made a pad to hopefully take the pressure off it, but so far it's not making much of a difference. If it continues or worsens, I'll have to take some time and go up to see my regular physician. I really hope it clears up.
Time to get back to what they pay me for...
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Mood:
busy - Music:office sounds at lunch
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood: amused
- Music:Dillon snoring at my feet
THEN we get to drive to Mom's, possibly picking up Paris and Tom (new b/f...GREAT guy), definitely picking up food for J (whose fresh-made, high maintenance diet doesn't work with the rest of the family's cooking tendencies). And get to Mom's by 6...but we likely can't leave the farm until 4:30 because J is in a workshop on community development until 4:00 (as well as til 8 tonite). The drive takes a minimum of 90 min. You can do the math and then take bets on how tight my shoulders are based on the stress level.
Sunday I'd thought I was going to get to spend with J, for the first time in a couple weeks. That changed, though, as he'll be going up to Breitenbush with a friend to do some hiking (something I have neither interest nor stamina to do....give me horseback ANY day!). So I'm toying with the idea of coming down the mountain and seeing a first-run movie in Salem (something J flatly refuses to do--NO MULTIPLEXES for him!)...then again, I could spend the day working on a couple of projects I have started and had to leave half-finished. I can't do both. I'm not sure which would be the best stress management tool, so will keep thinking on it.
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Mood:
pensive - Music:office sounds at lunch
I think I'm losing the paper war here. It's taking over. I have way too much of it (a side effect of being in the office only 1 1/2 days last week and dumping stuff to "sort later") and no time to really give the file cabinets a proper clearing out. I should schedule some time to do that before the end of the year.
I'm feeling good about the progress I've made preparing for my meetings for this week and next. The biggest is the Mentors and Interns Orientation Meeting (the first time we've held it) next week. New materials, new presentations...trying to figure out what works and cram a lot of information into 2 hours. I need to meet 1:1 with the intern from San Diego State University...she's been doing a practicum experience with us so she's not exactly new. I had her in my summer class at Western Oregon University in 2008, so I know her pretty well too. As for the Portland State University students....who knows if there will be any, but if they're planning to join us, they'd best get on the stick with applying, as the application/approval process now takes longer because of changes in the criminal background check process.
I'll be in Eugene on Thursday night this week...have an all-day meeting there on Friday. Hopefully I'll sleep better there than I did in Ashland last week. That was brutal!
On the homefront, J and I had a really good evening together yesterday, even though I spent the day PISSED OFF at him. We're working on finding our balance again...I know this is just one of those rough periods that happen in all marriages, but it doesn't make things any easier to handle when you're in the midst of it. Having his business take a nose-dive doesn't help, especially as we're now feeling the effects of the mandatory furloughs on my paycheck. We'll have a debt paid off after December that will give us another $200/mo to throw at what I've been thinking of "Debt Mountain"...and I'm working on figuring out how to snowball our debt reduction to the best advantage. That's tedious work, though...using Excel and having to type formulas, etc. I can do it...I just don't enjoy it. If I keep my eye on the "prize" though, maybe that'll help. Having the horses start bringing in money next summer will help too.
Time's up...back to work for me. Fortunately, it's even more quiet this afternoon than it was yesterday...and I'm not as distracted/distractable for some reason. Maybe because I'm no longer fuming at my spouse?? *smiles*
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Mood: busy
- Music:office sounds
I'm being distracted by lots of phone conversations this morning...need to find a way to buckle down and concentrate. I miss being able to use music for that purpose!
- Location:cubicle, sweet cubicle
- Mood:
frustrated - Music:NONE--and that's the problem!
Laundry
Pay bills
Get alfalfa pellets and grain for the goats at the feed store
Rework the household budget
Make a bonfire with the dead limbs of trees, stockpiled paper garbage and other burnable items
Get the primer and perhaps a coat of paint onto the kitchen island I bought last summer at a sale...and get the 3 layers of peeling shelf paper OFF the inside.
Remember to eat something other than an apple and a handful of crackers throughout the day
Clean the bathroom
Take a shower and wash my hair
My problem is that I slept til 1 PM (I took a full melatonin at 2 AM and finally settled down to sleep) and I do not have enough time in the day to do all of this. So once again, I'll likely be stuck working inside (and it's a GORGEOUS DAY!) while Jahn gets to spend the day up at Breitenbush with a friend. Hardly seems fair. Oh well.
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood:
apathetic - Music:traffic on the road outside the gate
I made the BEST soup tonight! It was a recipe out of a new vegetable soup cookbook we were given as a late/early Xmas gift. Garbanzo beans simmered with carrot, parsley, a whole head of garlic and spices....then combined with onion, more garlic, more spices and some of the broth from the original simmer....then chopped spinach and lemon juice (we used lime, as we had no lemons). OMG it was good!
I can hardly wait to try more of the recipes in the book! YUM! Beats the hell outta Campbell's ANY day!
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood:
full - Music:Dillon trying to get the cat to play with him
Massage therapy at 9 AM today, so had thought I'd get to sleep in a bit (til 7 AM...on a WORK DAY!) but have woken at 4:30...due to my kidneys doing their job and the effects of the week's activities putting my pain receptors on overload. I'd really rather be cuddled up next to my husband and asleep, but perhaps once the meds kick in I can go back for another hour or so.
I learned thru FB that a friend will have her apparel line on display at my office building's lobby today...it's the last day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and my suggestion that the DV prevention folks in the Department connect with her has been a rousing success! I love being able to help make connections like that! I'll do some family b-day shopping at her table when I get in...and may buy a t-shirt for myself and take ANOTHER ratty one out of farm rotation. I did get an SOU shirt....it looks like this (at least until I start doing barn chores in it...):
I learned LONG ago that white shirts and horses do NOT go together!
The drive home yesterday took FOREVER...I was having to stop and get out to move around and stretch every 45 min or so by the time I was halfway home...ended up coming directly home and doing some work here rather than going into the office. It'll be good to have some desk time today...
My next trip is scheduled for next week...but it's just a jaunt down to Eugene for an all-day meeting. I'll go the night before so I don't have to further disrupt my sleep cycle by leaving the house at 6 AM to drive down the day of. No presentations this time...just sitting in the peanut gallery and being available to answer questions or troubleshoot consumer issues if needed. There are worse ways to spend a Friday!
Pain meds just kicked in...so I'm headed back to bed to snuggle with J and doze for another hour or so.
- Location:living room couch
- Mood: mellow
- Music:the sound of the morning commute starting outside
After the conference adjourned, I was asked up to the planning committee's "post mortem" at the Conference Coordinator's home. LOVELY place...on the hill above the University. There was wine and snackish things (nice!) and good conversation, as well as initial plans for the next event. SO many people thanked me for "coming all the way down here!" It's a highlight of the year for me...and I told them so. So I'll prolly get asked back for next year if there IS a next year (funding issues may prevent it...but I'm not counting them out yet!)
I went windowshopping again this evening...didn't buy anything, but I think I WILL stop at the SOU Bookstore and get a tshirt on my way out of town tomorrow...I've noticed that many of my "farm" shirts are developing multiple holes and wear at the collars/seams. I don't understand why that's happening...the two I wear most often are only 6-8 years old, after all. I'll retire them and put an SOU one into rotation.
Had a nice dinner (solo) at the Ashland Bistro Cafe...and got the cup of tea I've been craving for 2 days. I really am missing home tonight--my bed, our little rituals (popcorn and tea on the couch between dinner and bedtime), the animals. I had a crap night of sleep last night--FINALLY nodded off at 4 AM, so am hoping to get more sleep tonight. It's past midnight, though, so I should shut things down...but the ibuprofin isn't working and I'm gonna have to get the big guns out...which means another 20 min of dinking around online, since I finished my trash novel earlier this evening and will need something to (attempt to) distract myself until the meds kick in. (Hmmm...apparently fibro pain causes run-on sentences in blog entries or so it. would appear from that last sentence. One of you scientific types on my F-list should do a proper study of that phenomenon.)
Tomorrow it's back on the road to Salem...I'll get there when I get there (Noon-1:00-ish, 2 at latest) and finish out my usual shift til 5:30...and then I get to go HOME! I can hardly wait. Massage therapy on Friday morning, first thing...which will be very needed after the week I've put my body through!
Here's hoping the roads are clear and dry, and the traffic is moving smoothly all the way north!
- Location:Ashland Springs Hotel, Ashland, OR
- Mood: missing home!
- Music:a quiet hotel room
Today's topic was disclosure of disabilities and the proper way to request reasonable accommodation. It was a new presentation for me; I wrote it (based on the work of a good friend and colleague from Washington State, John P. Evans, CRC) a few weeks ago. (I think it's a keeper...may offer to do it (perhaps slightly retooled) for our agency staff at next year's statewide inservice training. This year was the first in the last 4-5 where I had no role on the planning committee, no MC duties, no presentations to make...and it was kinda hard to get into things.) There were some great questions and some good dialogues during today's session--people seemed interested and pleased with the information they learned, so I can't ask for much more. My only complaint is that the room was HOTHOTHOT...so much so that the previous group had opened the windows to get air moving (on a wet and blustery day!). Tomorrow, for my internship/volunteerism session, I am in a different room, so I'm already thankful!
Tomorrow I don't have to be down to the university until about 9, so I'm going to do a windowshop walk up to Starbucks...a couple blocks away...instead of doing the continental breakfast here at the hotel, which was 90% breads and no fresh fruit that I saw. Either that or I'll go to Starbucks for coffee and then drive down to the natural foods market or to Market of Choice (a cross between the natural foods co-op and Safeway--similar [but better, IMHO] to Whole Foods) and get some fruit and yogurt or something.
I've had a quiet night since returning from the post-conference reception at a local bar/restaurant...it's been a long time since I've been to happy hour at a bar so I was a little dismayed at all the fried options on the menu (yeah, I know...I should get out more). The cocktails were GOOD though. I came back to the hotel just as it started hailing HARD....and the temp was dropping so quickly people were starting to wonder out loud about the possibility of snow. The weather guessers aren't sending out the snow alarm (yet--I've not watched the local news tonight), but as I only brought a light jacket and a slightly warmer vest to layer under it, I DO NOT want it to snow! I don't even have any gloves with me--something I regretted a bit as I walked the 3 blocks from the parking lot to the conference site this morning. BRRR! Anyway, it seemed the perfect night to change into a tshirt and yoga pants, hang out on Facebook and here on LJ, watch Dirty Jobs (I don't know any Rehabilitation Counselors who don't love that show!) and eat leftover pizza from last night. The only thing that's missing is a cup of hot tea...and I'm not about to pay $47.50 for a cup of Lipton from room service, so I'll make do with some regular water and call it good.
I'm glad I'll have one more night here in town...hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to poke around the shops along Siskiyou Blvd a bit more tomorrow evening. Tonight, though, it's time to start winding down and getting some sleep.
- Location:Ashland Springs Hotel
- Mood: mellow
- Music:"The Harmonious Blacksmith Air & Variations" by Handel, on the TV music channel
Checked into the hotel which is a favorite of mine...have a nice little room on the 6th floor with a cozy queen size bed and a view of Main Street. I walked thru the downtown/theater district to find somewhere to eat dinner and found a hole-in-the-wall pizza place that was REALLY good. I now have 6 slices of pizza for snacks or meals over the next couple days, too (and there's a fridge here in the room so that works well!). I poked thru a local paper and had a glass of Shiraz with dinner, and half paid attention to the Philadelphia Eagles/Washington Redskins game on the TV there (FWIW, Washington was getting their butts kicked). On the walk back to the hotel, I window shopped (lots of art, some gorgeous shoes, jewelry and home decor items) and dodged the raindrops, even though I had an umbrella with me. Tomorrow evening I'll wander up the other way and see what's changed since I was here last year. I'm seriously considering making plans to bring J down here (perhaps on the train??) for a couple days for our anniversary in May (it'll be #5)...I hope the season for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and/or Oregon Cabaret Theater will have something good that we can see when we're here.
I talked to J before I ventured out for food...he had to have a molar extracted today in an emergency status. He was MUCH nicer....pain meds have a way of helping in that manner. He'll be on soft foods for the next couple of days, and likely will be off the pain meds by Wednesday if I know him. He hates pharmaceuticals.
Speaking of...it's time for me to take my vitamins and pain meds, scrub the makeup off my face and try to get some sleep. I am hoping to be down to the University for Day 1 of the conference by about 8:00 and have the alarm already set for 6 AM.
- Location:Ashland, OR, USA
- Mood: mellow
- Music:"Strange Magic" by Electric Light Orchestra on the 70's music cable channel
I was team-teaching at Western Oregon University yesterday and today...and will go back and finish the job the first week of December. OMG what a germ pit that place is! Coughing, sneezing, miserable students slogging thru the rain... We ended up cutting class short by an hour because we were at a stopping point and a good 1/3 of the 14 students were fading fast due to illness. It was a good plan. My throat is still kind of scratchy (a hold-over from Mon/Tuesday's illness) and I have NO interest in getting whatever the students have!
I'm home for the weekend, then will be heading to Ashland (near the Oregon/California border) to present two sessions at a conference at Southern Oregon University (hmm...is a trip to La Grande and some event at EASTERN Oregon University in my future so I can score a hat trick?). Fortunately, the presentations are on different days...Tuesday and Wednesday. If you're in the area and are interested in my views on Disclosure of Disability Status and Requesting Reasonable Accommodation or in Internship/Volunteerism as a means of making yourself marketable in a job search, stop on by! J's not able to come this time--which is unfortunate--but I'm sure the trip there and back will be fine. Nothing like a 4 hour drive each way to make you glad to arrive at a destination!
So...laundry, packing and hopefully some time in the saddle are in the plans for the weekend. We're also going to a friend's 50th birthday party Saturday (tomorrow) evening, so that'll be fun.
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood: exhausted
- Music:Dillon and Touche giving one another a hard time (BARK! Grrrrrowwwwwlllll!)
- Location:down on the farm
- Mood:
bouncy - Music:the hum of the dishwasher
