Chuggin' Along

Made it through workday number 2 this week! I've been pretty busy at work, getting a record number (sarcastic tone), two data books ready! It's a program with a few issues. Had a bit of a headache yesterday, and I've had a bit of stuff in my throat today, but nothing that's an all out "sickness" yet (knock, knock). I'm just glad I've made it this far.

Yesterday I acquired a GPS device (that my brother-in-law Nathan suggested I get) to help my traveling this summer (it should arrive on Thursday). I also worked a bit more on the New England trip plan and after dinner we watched the first Nancy Drew. Well, we watched most of it before the 9pm "Jack" (commonly referred to as "24") that my parents watch religiously. I went straight to bed and I believe I was much happier for doing so. We should finish Nancy Drew tonight after our family Bible study.

Thunk. (head hits the table) I'm tired. :)

Jp

Not Sick Yet

Made it through today without being sick! (knock on wood)

Today I woke up early, got lots of things done, had a great time with the family and then slept for several hours... I just woke up again. I fear this is becoming sort of a Sunday routine. :)

But today our time with the family was very fun. We had a sort of "Passover" remembrance celebration, just like we did last year. Read through a couple selected passages that talk about God's promise to Abraham, how the Israelites broke free from Egypt, and then Jesus's sacrifice. We then had a lamb for dinner and apple and cherry pies for dessert.

We are going to watch the last Hornblower film and then I will return to bed speedily.

Sleep is the best thing; that and orange juice.

Jp

Spring Cleaning!

Woke up today at a quarter to 7 with a bit of a sore throat (I could feel stuff dripping down) and so I propped myself up and slept for another 2 hours. This time when I woke the feeling was gone! Gee, I wished that worked every time!

Had a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs with potatoes, mushrooms, onions and cheese mixed in... and then a game of Phase 10 with Meg and Jason, and I was soundly beaten. They had to go to a family thing at Jason's house, so I went to the park with my basketball. I swung on the swing until the people who were there were done and then shot a few hoops myself.

It really felt retro-Jr. High this weekend! Last night I accompanied the fun couple to their semi-monthly "egg curry" gatherings with Jason's bio-engineering friends from school. The egg curry was a little hot for my likings, but it was fun to try. What I really loved though was the Foosball table they had. I played with everyone I could... and mostly won. :) I used to play all the time in Jr. High. I also used to shoot hoops all the time at the park... so it was fun! Meg and I used to play variances of the game "Pig" or "Horse". Instead of having to get those letters for missing shots, we'd play "Pig" but instead spell out "Scott". "Spy" turned into "Victor", "Star" turned into "Hilary" (with one L), "Sweetie" turned into "Betty", somehow "Horse" meant "Mackie"... (don't ask; I don't know), "Phone" turned into "Gertie", "Organ" turned into "Eugenia"... there were others. It was so Jr. High. :)

Whew... that was longer than I intended it to be.

When I got home I thought I would clean my room, so I vacuumed my floor, and then I thought I'd vacuum the hall, and then the stairs, and then the living room, and then the kitchen, and then I cleaned the kitchen up a bit... and it was great because we had the doors open and there was a very nice cool breeze coming in. It was very like spring with the sunshine and birds... ahh.

The fun couple soon returned, and after I had a bite to eat we headed off to Juanita Bay Park to scout out for the pictures we want to take for the wedding. We found some nice spots and saw a couple bald eagles as well! We noticed them because they were screeching, way up in the tree.

Tonight we watched the next Horatio Hornblower and I had forgotten how good it was. Right now it's some pizza with the family.

Jp

Last Night

Way too busy to post yesterday!

Before lunchtime I remembered about Denny's birthday special this year: a free Grand Slam on your birthday. So Dad took me out (we swung by home first for my workout clothes for tonight and the Backgammon game) and we played four games before we got our food. :) Oh, was it great! I had the turkey sausage patty and hashbrowns and the usual buttermilk pancakes and scrambled eggs, along with a tall glass of orange juice. When we got back to work, my coworker Deanna had put up some "Happy Birthday Jen" signs at the top of the stairs and on our department door... so lots of people wished me a happy birthday from then on :)

After work I went to Jazzercise, like usual, but after I got home I changed and we all headed out to Anthony's Homeport Restaurant for a yummy dinner. I had reserved a table, and even though it was on the very busy and crowded Kirkland waterfront we got parking because they have their own parking garage. My dinner came with the creamiest clam chowder! And for the entree I had garlic butter shrimp with a bed of rice and spears of asparagus. And there were baskets of the warmest sourdough bread... It was excellent!

We went straight home after dinner and after replying to my brother's "happy birthday my weird sister" post on Facebook (he even called later and wished me one audibly!), I opened a couple presents and we had some chocolate cake while we watched "The Male Animal"... LOL! It was very good!

But by the time it finished, it was just past midnight and time for bed!

Jp :)

Exactly 27 Years Ago...

My Mom felt a lot better. She spent that night in the hospital watching strange movies on TV with Dad.

How time flies. :)

What can I say about Wednesday? It was gorgeous! So I took more pictures in the front yard because the Japanese Maple and the tulip tree were starting to really bloom and blossom. And I got a couple rather neat self-portraits. Mom made a yummy steak dinner, we watched "Notorious" together and I cursed Alfred Hitchcock because he is so good at suspense. I opened a very cool package from Mike, and I brought in this morning doing what I love... talking to my friend.

Beautiful sleep last night, and I rose right away, ready to meet the day.

Jp

Ok, So Life Isn't That Bad

Well, my headache went away! It helped to be busy at work. And when I got home there was a fabulous dinner awaiting of baked tilapia, red potatoes, steamed broccoli and fresh rolls.

It's really odd that I was so tired this morning... I went to sleep around 10:30 last night after a peaceful evening of reading.

Tonight after Hebrews 13 and some hymns we watched the 6th out of set of 8 of Horatio Hornblower. The Mutiny has finally been resolved! Whew.

Still tired. Very tired.

Jp

Oooohfffff.

Headache. Where's the medicine?

Woke up around 2am with bad dreams, couldn't sleep for a while.
And like Monday morning, it took me forever to get out of bed today.
I turned off the alarm and it didn't even register what I was doing.

ZZZZZ

Jp

Sleepin' In

Sunday was pretty relaxing. I woke up earlier than I wanted... my niece poked her head in and said hello... lol. But that meant I was up in time for a pancake breakfast :)

Later that morning we watched "The Ugly Dachshund" that Meg had just picked up from Half Price Books on Saturday. I did a little more planning for the big trip coming up as well. Had lunch right after the movie (gosh, I was still in my pajama pants!) and then I got some jeans on and we headed out for a quick visit to see Aunt Penny and Uncle Don in Monroe. They are getting new carpet, so Meg and Jason took some of the old stuff for their future accommodations. They were just finishing loading Jason's van when we arrived. We sat and visited for a while and Penny got out Danny the mechanical doggie that walks and sits and barks... the one we used to play with when Meg and I were kids. So funny!

I had quite a headache by the time we left... pretty sure it was the getting up early and watching a movie. So when we got home I went immediately to bed and didn't wake up til 7pm! Headache was gone, and so were the kids! (unrelated, I promise!) Their parents had come, watched a movie with my parents and left by the time I got up. I was sad I missed saying goodbye, but very glad I caught up on sleep. After a tiny bite to eat, we watched yet another movie, "They Call Me Mister Tibbs"... a 1970 murder mystery with Martin Landau and Sidney Poitier, and it's funny, because never do they call him "Mister Tibbs". Pretty good movie... and it was fun to watch with everyone.

Jp

How Did That Get *There*?

From today's Seattle Times: "Around the Northwest"

"A Kelso man walking his dog found a small black cylinder with a yellow and red stripe. The Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office says it turned out to be an undetonated Japanese mortar shell from the 1930's.

The man said he found the device in a field near the Kelso airport Thursday evening. Authorities called in an ordnance-disposal unit from Fort Lewis, which took the shell to a safe area and detonated it early Friday."

Wild.

Jp

Suddenly, It's Spring!

Friday was just as sunny as today was, but after work at 1pm, all I did was come home, have a great big turkey sandwich for lunch, play with my niece and nephew in my room (they are over for the weekend, so my sister and bro-in-law can have a holiday) and do more planning for the New England trip. After the kids went to bed, we watched "A Good Year" (2006, Russel Crowe) from Netflix. It was alright... "rich guy finds out there's more to life".

Today, however, I wanted to experience the cool (probably 60's) sunshine all day long. After a big breakfast with the whole family, and after I digested a bit and read in the whale book, I got ready and went for a 20 mile bike ride on the Burke-Gilman Trail, starting in Woodinville and ending at Matthew's Beach park in Seattle. I love going north on the Burke... all those hills in Bothell really burn. :) It took me roughly 45 minutes each way (10 miles). I had been thinking of turning around sooner than Matthew's Beach, but I decided to keep going until the record I was listening to (on a tiny mp3 player... lol) completed it's run. It finished just as I put my toes in the water! So I sat there on some grass right on the sand watching the ducks swim by for about 20 minutes. I drained my water bottle as soon as I got off my bike. It was brilliant sunshine, so my legs started to warm up after being chilled by the breeze from biking. I was wearing my athletic pants that only go to my knees.

It was just time for lunch with everyone when I got home around 1pm, so I made another ginormous turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and cheese. But I also wanted to go ride my horse today, so right after lunch I changed into some jeans and headed for the hills. I forgot to mention how I could see all the Cascade Mountains clear as anything while on my bike... I got to see them a lot closer as I drove to Carnation. I sang loudly with Rich Mullins on the gorgeous drive over "Sing your praise to the Lord, come on everybody, stand up and sing... one more, hallelujah! Sing your praise to the Lord..." (it's classic Christian from the '80's... it makes me happy). When I got to our friend's house, I couldn't believe my eyes! Directly east of the pasture, where there had been forest before, suddenly there was nothing but a clear view of the Cascades, much closer! Apparently, Weyerhaeuser had logged a few weeks ago... so now, instead of feeling a little closed in in the pasture, now there is a grand view of the mountains, like we used to have to ride a half-hour to go see! Roo was a bit of a brat, both during hoof-picking and riding, but we fought our way through it and I won. :) As a reward for finally listening to me, I took him outside the ring to where there is some nice, long, bright green grass. And he loved it. :)

I was with the horses for about an hour, fighting and riding. The drive back home was just as wonderful as the drive over. Upon returning, I read a bit in Meg's dissertation (I'm making it through it! Only one more chapter!) and then my parents were taking the kids to a park in Kirkland... so I went with them... I walked the dog around a bunch and then played with the kids... and right now, back home and after a bit to eat... I am wiped out. :)

Jp

First Birthday

The Preliminary Party

The ladies at work are so nice. Every birthday we go out and celebrate, and today we went out for mine in advance of next Thursday, since one of my coworkers will be unavailable then. We went to our regular haunt, Coho Cafe in downtown Redmond. Some people tried new things! We all have our regular favorites, and I had one of mine, the Northwest Seafood Fettuccine. It's in an Alfredo sauce with hunks of fish... I think it's halibut, shrimp, scallops, and sun-dried tomato. Mmmm. And since the restaurant gives you a dessert to share if it's your birthday, I had the baked apple crisp with ice cream and caramel on the side. Oh, gosh, that was good.

At about 4:30 I remembered about Jazzercise being at 5:30, and I hadn't brought workout clothes with me... this makes for two weeks in a row I've had to go back home and quick change and then go a little further into Redmond for the hour-long class. It was a particularly hard set today, and I felt great afterwords. I took myself out for a veggie sandwich at Panera, then came home, took a shower, then washed my bed and continued reading in Meg's dissertation. I even got to the part where she mentions Rupert and Linda in a footnote! :)

On the drive back home at 7pm as I came down 132nd St., the sun was sitting just on top of the Olympic mountains in the distance. Thin, wispy clouds melted into a golden sky above the impressive peaks. I love how you can see just the one mountain if you look west at 132nd square. It's one peak that rises out of the road as it slopes up, keeping the following stoplight out of view. It's a view I savor, especially with a sunset like today's.

Jp

Except For...

...when I got off work, it was sunny again. So that was nice!

I love cold and clear. :) It was probably around 50 out; right now it's 42 and I saw a bunch of stars when I took the dog out. Gorgeous!

Tonight I've busied myself by paying bills and figuring out my taxes with Dad. He helped me understand the maze of taking my educational deduction as a credit instead. I would have had to pay out a bunch, but with the credit, I'm basically being reimbursed for the whole of my tuition for spring quarter's photography class last April! Yay!

Jp

Happy (Cloudy) Days

It might have been that it just wasn't Monday anymore. It might have been me getting used to going to work again... or it might have been the cloud cover outside. There was nothing pulling me quite as hard to get outside on Tuesday.

Work was kinda slow again, so that hadn't changed much. At home I did a little bit of planning for the California road trip with Mom in the end of July, and after reading Hebrews 12 together (and singing some hymns and old praise choruses from the '80's), we watched the fourth Hornblower film "The Wrong War".

For today, work is busier. So the day is going faster.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Jp

Dying Inside

This weekend was a nice, lazy one. On Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning up my desk... going through the big drawer (that was overflowing) of stuff I've collected from recent trips. Postcards, programs, receipts, park maps... all that stuff. So it was a real walk down memory lane (since 2008).

Sunday I woke up rather early... 7:30 I think. And I got a couple things done... ordered a case for my baby laptop... and I read in my whale book from Friday, sitting at my desk with the sunshine spilling all over me. It looked cold outside (it was frosty that morning), but it sure was comfortably warm in the light. Between that and a late breakfast, I got rather tired by 1:30 or so and took a four-hour nap! Yikes! But it had clouded over, so I wasn't really missing anything. :)

I had planned on going to church at 6pm, so I got up at the perfect moment. Church was in the second week of mission's week, where the focus is to remember the Lord's work around the world. I think I'll send them a letter asking for advice on some things, since I really feel that my next adventure is a sort of mission; going to be available to minister to people who I run into.

We watched the Battle of Britain (from Netflix) that night, and I really liked it, but they had way too much of an abrupt ending. I wanted to know more about what happened to Christopher Plummer, and a few other characters, but instead they have a sequence of air battles all mushed together and then the Germans all of a sudden pulling out. Yay! We won! Oh, I knew that...

Today started off okay, but I really felt like my spirit was dying as I looked outside and knew that the temp was about 60 and saw the soft sunshine... and I was stuck at work. I was kinda frustrated with stuff all day (and I wasn't very busy at work either) and I knew at one (or two) points I definitely lost my good sense/temper and sinned. Coming home to mom's fabulous spaghetti dinner helped me relax, but what was best was the Bible study I tried out at church (the pastor wants us all to try out small groups for a couple weeks - and I said "okay"). We studied Romans 7 & 8, which talk about the war between the flesh (our humanity) and the Spirit of God living in us, and how Paul talks about "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?!" Oh, how I agree with him! I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! A timely, excellent reminder of scripture.

The weather outside tonight is simply perfect. I have my window open and it's 10pm! Cool breezes and absolutely dry, although cloudy. When I got home I simply couldn't go inside. Instead I jogged around our 1/2 mile block. I went inside, and then took the dog out. And I met a neighbor who was walking her dog... I had too... I had to corral Spiffy LOL :) She's only been here a little over a year, and is also a UW grad. :)

I think I might be ready for one more day... maybe.

Jp

Misery Loves the Dentist

"Just tell me if the pain becomes unbearable." -my dentist,
...about removing plaque right under my gum line with a high-power water tool that whined like heavy machinery.

Like they said, I started my weekend with a visit to the dentist, down the street from work. No cavities! And my gums bled only a little, I hear: I need to floss; the story is the same.

To celebrate getting out of the chair with my teeth intact, I went and had a turkey/mozzarella/tomato & onion sandwich at Panera, which wasn't too far away. So my teeth were perfectly clean for about 15 minutes. What a sandwich! And on my way home I thought I'd stop at Half Price Books. In browsing the children's section and the non-fiction upstairs I ended up with a big British book on Whales in legends, art, history and literature, as well as a few fun titles like The Sword in the Stone (yeah, not the cartoon version), Ralph S. Mouse, and a huge, illustrated copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I took my own sweet time, and it was lovely.

Yesterday after work I went to my first Jazzercise class since going in North Carolina... and they did some of the same songs my Aunt did! Including the one that made my arms incredibly sore before :) This time was much better! Also, I managed to secure tickets for my trip to Philadelphia and New York in June. Can you believe tickets were already selling out for the Statue of Liberty on a Tuesday in the beginning of June?! Yikes! I'm glad I thought of it, since I only have the one day in New York.

I think tonight we're going to continue with the Horatio Hornblower miniseries...

It is pleasant thinking of staying home tomorrow for the first time in three weeks. :O

Jp

Nothing Doing

Monday was kinda different... after sleeping in too long (I should have set that up with my boss in advance... I always overestimate my ability to get up when I'm dead) I felt wonderfully rested and was rather productive at work, and I worked late to make it up. Because of that, I didn't have much time to clean up the kitchen and eat dinner before I had to pick up Mom & Dad, so I baked a pizza while I did the dishes. I got on the freeway right when they landed and arrived two minutes after they got to the curb. Couldn't have planned it better. When we all got home I put away my stuff from the day before and paid my pending bills; exciting, I know. But I did get to bed at a good time.

Tuesday wasn't much of anything at all. I worked, I ate, I crashed. (Hmm...) Except dinner was fabulous... whole, roasted chickens and all the fixings from a thanksgiving dinner! And after taking care of the dog and putting away dishes and taking a shower, Mom & Dad & I read in Hebrews together, and it was a particularly good reading time we had. But after that, I truly did crash. I went straight to bed and didn't wake up for quite some time.

Today I went to work and came home for lunch alone, since Dad's taking the rest of the week off. I stopped by the bank before coming home and didn't have much for lunch because I had a late breakfast at work of scrambled eggs and toast. Tonight we're planning on watching our Netflix...

These quick summaries are much easier to sit and write now then having to log on each night. How tired I have been! But what should I expect, having a trip that lasted from 3:30 on one morning til midnight the next night? LOL

Jp

A Few More Details

From Sunday the 7th:

We slept in pretty well... didn't wake up til 10. It had been such a nice chat the night before... and a perfect day.

But as I looked out the window all I saw was an oppressive, grey mass covering the entire sky. The asphalt was slick black from rain, and sure enough it was indeed precipitating... in Arizona! For some reason I was shocked because I thought that it was always sunny here! LOL

I forgot to mention on Saturday that after the ball game we did have a tiny run in with a little rain as we were waiting for him to get his haircut. But that only lasted a matter of a few minutes and was off and on.

After a while we packed up all our stuff, checked out and went to Denny's for breakfast. I had an "Ultimate Omelet", and I loved it again. As we sat, we pondered what to do. Our plans had included going to an open air wildlife park... and a scenic drive at South Mountain Park, just south of Phoenix. But there was close to no visibility, and it started to pour. We kicked around the idea of going to a movie, but it was rejected. Zac had a bit of congestion and a headache, so he was thinking he might want to go back to Yuma earlier than 5PM. We decided to go to the Air Force museum in Mesa, and then they would drop me off at the hotel where I was meeting Rita.

It was around noon when we finished eating, and it took about a half-hour to get to the museum. I was very impressed with it! They had two hangars (thank goodness it was all inside!) full of planes and memorabilia from WWII. They had a B-26, a few P-51's, several other planes, and then an F4 Phantom and a MiG in the first (besides many engines and displays and the largest 48 star flag that I've ever seen) and then in the operational hangar they had a fully restored and operational B-17G open to climb into and walk through! Still being restored and only available to look at was a veteran B-25 from the Mediterranean theater, and a smaller transport plane. Now, I read "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" when I was a teenager, so I have a special love for B-25's. It was in great condition (as far as I could tell) and was very neat to touch. We ended up spending two full hours wandering around all the history; and they even had a very pretty patch in the gift shop. :)

Getting to the hotel was very easy (thank you Google!) and I didn't mind just sitting in their lobby. I mean, if you have to wait around for a while, doing it in a swank hotel lobby sitting on a leather couch with free Internet is the way to go. I posted the pictures (in the last post) and read for a moment before Rita came. She wanted to meet here because the hotel has a lot of throw-back architecture to 1912, when Arizona became a state. We walked around for a while, looking in shop windows and talking.

We ate at the hotel restaurant (AJ's Cafe) and had dinners that they served back in 1912... I had a grilled salmon with rice and veggies and it was delicious! The dinner included a fresh greens salad to start and also a piece of ice creme cake to finish... wow! what a good choice of restaurant! We sat at our booth and talked quite a bit longer until it was time to go. On the way to the airport it was still pouring in spots with lightning flashing in the sky once and a while, just to our right. What strange weather! It's always fun for me to see storms in flat places in the country. By us there are so many hills and trees that it's impossible to get the same wide open experience.

I was so tired! I mostly slept on the plane, but it was an on and off, uncomfortable sleep. I listened to movie music on my mp3 player, and I was so tired that I fell asleep right when the Imperial March came on. And as on the way down, I missed the beverage service because I was dead to the world. Meg and Jason picked me up, and let me tell you, lying down in bed at home felt soooooooo good. :)

Jp

Wowzers!

The B-17G "Sentimental Journey"

At the Commemorative Air Force Aviation Museum in Mesa, AZ.











A self-guided walk-through of the plane...

So neat!

Through the tail door, around outside

and under the belly:

Jp

Arizona!

I stayed up a little too late last night goofing around on the computer, so that I didn't even hear my alarm as I had it set to go off at 3:25am. No wonder... I shouldn't have been so surprised... if I'm tired enough, only a person can wake me up. Thankfully, Meg had a backup alarm and did so. We made it just in time to the airport that I walked up to my gate right when they began boarding. Whew! I then slept off and on the whole way down. Little reading at first, but I was so tired. I saw a bit of the Grand Canyon while we were descending... through the clouds.

Mom & Dad and Zac were still an hour away when I arrived, so I bought a Newsweek magazine (they had a feature on the war) and I had a bagel with egg and cheddar cheese and waited to get picked up. Thank goodness for cell phones! And we met.

The first thing we did was go to the Men's Warehouse so Zac could get measured for the wedding... and while that was going on, I stopped into Old Navy across the parking lot and found a couple pairs of khaki pants (they always fit so well from that place - and I hardly ever go to them). I changed into the lighter pair because of the warm weather.

We then headed north to the Peoria Sports Complex for an afternoon of America's favorite pastime. The Seattle Mariners were facing off against the San Diego Padres for spring training. We got some concessions and my brother got a cap and we walked around the small, open air stadium. Our seats were very good, right across from 1st base behind the dugout. We saw every close play at first up close!

The game started off slow, but picked up in the 2nd. We scored first, and SD answered with 2. The third inning was two blanks, but in fourth we tied it up with one more, and then both teams scored 2 in the fifth for a 4-4 tie. Then in the sixth we took over with 1 more, and then we knocked them out in the seventh with 2 more. And the game ended that way, 7 to 4. One of our guys... Mike Sweeney... hit 4 for 4 with a home run and a triple. And of course, Ryan Langerhans was there too... It was such a fabulous game! The sun was at our backs (it was brilliant sunshine with small, puffy clouds) and the scoreboard was right in front. Couldn't have asked for anything better than this.


So my brother needed to get his weekly haircut before returning to work on Monday, so we waited at a local mall while he got his hair higher & tighter. We all had Cold Stone ice creme, and then checked into the motel. We got everything straightened out and then went to my brother's favorite restaurant on earth (that's missing from Yuma, poor guy), Chipotle Mexican Grill, where we all got very large burritos. I contacted Rita while I was out the motel, and she gave me a call while we were there. Tomorrow when everyone leaves (before I have to leave) the two of us are going to meet for dinner! And we'll have a bit of time to hang out before she takes me to the airport! I'm so excited! :)

What a great weekend this is!
Jp

Peace at Home

Just a few more hours now of alone time.

All day Thursday I was by myself (when not at work) because Mom & Dad had taken off to see my brother that morning about 10 am, and Meg took them and then had school, so everyone was gone when I came home after work.

I had to work a little late because I took a bit extra time in the afternoon to cover Dad's class for him again. This time I read more in "Planet Narnia" while the kids took the test and it was a welcome reading break in the mid-afternoon.

After eating some leftovers for dinner, I broke out the puzzle that my grandparents gave me for Christmas... a Jane Austen puzzle in a box that looked like and opened like a book :) I was able to do the whole thing as it was only 500 pieces.


This morning I got to sleep in a touch since it's the late start on Fridays (8AM). Work was rather steady all morning with my program and the meeting we had on the tooling issues. After getting home late (I needed to sit and plan some details for tomorrow) I had more leftovers and took care of the dog. I went out in the front with him a couple times and basked in the bright sunshine and the 60 degree weather. I took my camera out too and had a good bit of fun doing self-portraits and doing macros of flowers. Other than that I've read a bit in a good book and relaxed.

Tomorrow promises to be fun... I am flying down to Phoenix to meet my brother and parents for a Seattle Mariners spring training game. I need to get to the airport by 4am for my 5am flight so I can get there before the 1:05pm start time in MST. That was the latest flight available! LOL! But this Saturday I should be online, since we'll be at a hotel. :)

I have my window open for the first time this year and I'm really enjoying the chirping birds, the fading light and the fresh air. Ah, beauty.

Jp

Pluggin' Away

Tuesday and Wednesday have been rather busy at work. I have a program shipping pretty soon and I've been kept busy entering part numbers as well. And I've kept on my East Coast schedule pretty well, getting up at 6 and going to bed by 10:30 or so.

The weather's been perfectly spring-like. We've had lots of clouds, but big, bright, puffy ones, with lots of sunshine between. It really is a joy to walk out of work and see the cherry blossoms and the robins in the grass.

Here's for it being Wednesday!

Jp

Simply Elated

March 1st:

It was Monday morning. But mentally I was still on East Coast time, and I had gone to bed by 10:20 PST after catching up with Meg when she got home. So I awoke at 5:40 (in the morning) and didn't get up til my alarm went off by 5:59. I was rather awake, so I washed up, had breakfast and was out the door on time. What met my eyes took my breath away... peach and cream in the clear sky and cherry blossoms already blooming as I drove to work. Yes, this was the nicest Monday morning in the world. I was so relaxed that when I stopped in to talk with my boss, I had lost all recollection of anything that had happened before I left. "What Centaur books?" LOL

I was still relaxed when I got to my desk, and I worked hard to clear off my desk all day long. Lots of leftover MRB tasks took up the entire second half of the day. But as one of our new coworkers noted, I still looked relaxed at 4 PM.

When I got home, I ate dinner with Mom, scanned the newspaper about the end of the Olympics, and then proceeded to clean my room, getting rid of old clothes (goodwill) and putting the new ones away. I also got to bed by about 10:30 again, and I was quite worn out when I put my head on the pillow.

Lord, how I loved and needed the time off! Thanks!

Jp