A Few Hours and a Fantastic Weekend

Because of the craziness at work this week, I didn't have much time to myself. With the time I did have, I finished organizing the paper stuff in my house... brochures, programs, tickets, documents, etc. It was the last set of things that needed going through, and although it took me a couple nights (Thursday and Friday), I managed to get through it. I also picked up the last of my home improvements...  a bunch of frames from Michaels on Friday... set out my 31 postcards (from recent trips) and put them in a couple small poster frames in groupings. Also found a big 22x28 framed picture of something that vividly reminds me of a very special day in college... for $20! Put that and one of the Sleeping Beauty posters up in the bedroom for a big improvement. Panera Bread sits right next to Michaels, and I had an old favorite combo... veggie sandwich and creamy tomato soup for a convenient dinner.

Saturday I picked up the last of the Walmart.com orders... a big brown carpet for the bedroom. It's looking nice and cozy up there now, with the art and the furniture and the little lamp. A marked improvement from a mattress and a dresser. I also broke down and bought the small matching pillow to the comforter (that I bought about a year ago...), and finally found a simple weight scale. My weight always hangs heavy on my head right before the PRT... LOL... so now, I can keep better track of how I'm doing.

But goodness, that wasn't all I did on Saturday! I started off going to Newport News for a toy soldier show at the Virginia War Museum. This I remembered on Friday after checking out the website from a catalog I found while going through my stacks of papers. So it was... perfect timing! I bought three figures online,

and at the show on Saturday, I bought a Spanish-made French Cuirassier on horseback (1806 period), and a English-made 1950s mounted knight.

After dropping them off at home, I continued on to a Greek Orthodox Church in Norfolk for their annual Greek Festival... lots of great Greek food: I had a lamb gyro, a delicious Spanakopita (phyllo pie with spinach and feta cheese), a Greek salad, some buttered rice, and a piece of Baklava to finish! Then I stopped by the church to look around... they have lots of medieval paintings of the saints, apostles, Christ, and Mary. It was very interesting to look at, and I picked up a handout history of their church. Went right back home and watched the first couple episodes of Downton Abby, which I've been rather interested in seeing since it came out. I enjoyed it at first, but but into the fourth episode, things were sprawling out of control, just like they did in Upstairs/Downstairs... whiny, bratty daughter who is "so oppressed"... and gets into lots of trouble and whines about having to get married to get out of it.

But, by today, I made it to the sixth episode where people seem to redeem themselves and all seems pretty much to be righted. I don't think I want to watch any more though... I know it will delve into scenes of hard emotion where everything spirals out of control so you have to watch the next season. I don't think I want to get that far into it. I enjoyed it where it is now, and I don't want to go through the heartbreak of the great war yet again. As things are now, people are getting engaged and they are happy... so I'll leave it at that.

Otherwise today, I've mowed and trimmed the lawn, did the dishes, not ate too much (fried egg and cream of wheat for breakfast, sandwich/carrot/cheese roll-up for dinner), and managed a brilliant strategy for working out and doing my laundry at the same time: Q-80 on base provides washers and driers, and while I first washed, I went in the gym for a 12-minute PRT-type bike ride (134 calories!), then after I went and put them in the drier, I did 1,000 yds at the pool. Came home for the shower, and all was in order!

I missed church tonight though... and I felt kind of lonely after I watched a very silly film from 2009... 17 Again. I remember seeing the ad in the paper for it when it came out, so I didn't mind the $1 rental fee to be satisfied. It was obvious in a lot of ways, but it was funny in places and entertaining. But as for being lonely, I prayed to the Lord and thanked him for all the good things he's given me, and I felt a lot better.

Jw

On the Spur of the Moment

Waiting for my Darling to finish dinner before we talk tonight, and I looked up "The Thin Man" trailer on YouTube... very cute. And then a suggested link had this... "Let's Start the New Year Right". Better late than never!

Happy New Year, everyone!
Jw

Today after a short day at work I wasted a ton of time going through the photo album of my Carnegie Dinosaurs on my laptop. I took pictures of them before they got packed away at home... so I categorized them by year and name and can now tell you with a couple clicks which ones I have. :) Well, I'm excited about that. :) This led to an Internet search about the collection, and I found an informative website from an enthusiast as well as info from the manufacturer, Safari Ltd. I counted my own and found I have 52 different molds and 62 individual pieces (1 copy, 9 repaints, and 7 remolded). And then there was this very informative Wikipedia site about the history.

Here are two released last year that I want very much:
















I think I'll wait for my birthday though. :)

Didn't want to go anywhere today. Had mac'n cheese w/dogs for dinner and started watching Season 1 of "Heroes" that I got at Half Price when I was home. Swept the floor in the house, and made it through a discussion about my Christmas lights with my landlady. She'll let me keep one on. Other than that, I finished getting the pics from the holidays on FB.

My poor Darling probably didn't know how crazy I am about my dinosaurs before we got married. :(

LOL

Time for Bed

After work today, during which I was greatly encouraged about our future and new employees (a load off my shoulders), I came home to a snack, looked about on eBay for more of those tin knights I love (it's been on my mind since I made that Facebook album) and found a couple more. After this, I realized I was very tired and lay down on the couch for 2 and a half hours. Had dinner with Mom and the FC after I woke up, and I told them about my strange dreams about a detective, meeting my friends from years ago, aspects from one of the Tintin comic books all on location at my old church during a Christmas play. ? Who knows. I think my mind was somewhere in deep center field.

Anyway, for a while now, ever since that Tom Cruise movie about Operation Valkyrie came out, I've wanted to watch the documentary about the real thing; so I watched it tonight on Netflix. It's pretty well done. Lots of b/w and color footage that I've never seen before, and now I know what happened in detail and who Stauffenberg was. I had no idea before; interesting stuff.

Okay... it's time for more sleep.
Jp

It Was a WENNderful Night!

Thirteen folks all at once! More than even my first chat! It took fifteen minutes just to say "hello" to Linda, James, Rodney, Mike, Emma, Meg, Jason, Michelle, Cammy, Kathleen, Samuel and Erich. What a wonderful time! I think I want to watch the episode again before Christmas though :) it's hard to soak it all in while chatting! ...I think I could listen to Gil and Maple singing together forever and ever... oh yeah... and Betty and Maple... just love their voices! It's such a classy episode!

Today just flew by! I got to work a little early because I knew I needed to put some data books together. I didn't finish until quitting time!

Mom and I went to Fred Meyer tonight for some presents I needed for tomorrow's staff gift exchange and we found the Playmobile nativity set and Mom got it for her collection. It's so cute! Especially love the animals! The only set we had growing up was the zoo... which was very neat!

Gosh! It's time for bed! I can't believe December is half over already!
Jp

Happy Valentine's and Other Things

Like Happy 200th, Mr. Lincoln.

My! I have been away for a while! This week was simply exhausting! Balancing work and school and life in general somehow didn't go very smoothly.

My boss was gone the first couple of days this week to spend time with a dear relative who is not doing well. On Tuesday, I did more work on the colossal amount of filing in Document Control. While sitting down next to an open drawer, I noticed something unwelcome about the lower drawer that was thought to be empty. The person that had just quit last month had stashed there a stack of documents in no order at all. This was the second time now that I had found something of this nature, so I thought I'd look in more "empty" drawers to diminish our surprises later. And I found two drawers stuffed to the gills with large, rolled, hardware drawings. The most important thing we keep. I showed my co-worker, who is heading the department now, and we decided to look through every drawer and we found six or seven more stashes of things that should have been filed, ranging from 2006 to 2008. So my boss came back on Wednesday, the next day.

She took it rather well, but was very sad, and disappointed in that employee. Now I don't mind filing at all... I find it rather relaxing actually, because it's straight-forward, no nonsense work that you can see get accomplished. But my boss didn't want me to work on it because of a time-charging issue. I was caught off guard by this, and got rather mad. I felt like walking out. I think a lot of that had to do with the way she told me, and me being so tired from class the night before where we worked on a new program called 'Lightroom' and my machine didn't work. But I did finally download and start Photoshop on my own laptop for the first time this night. That was an accomplishment in and of itself!

Thursday went much better. I got some sleep, and was prepared for what I had to do. It was a very long day however. I got to the University a little later that evening than I wanted to, and realized when I got there that I left all my prints at home. So, in earnest speed, I proceeded to the lab and printed off four prints, adjusting a few things on two of them beforehand as well. Class is always great when we do critiques, and that's what we'll be doing for the rest of the quarter and the next. After that, there was a little demonstration on mat-cutting, and then we watched a bio on a National Geographic field photographer... what a life! yikes! exciting but excruciating, both physically and mentally... and they say it's glamorous! Thy guy would leave his wife and three kids at home for weeks on end to photograph all over the world. He got deathly sick once, and usually had to work in harsh, miserable conditions. But he loved to work and photograph, and he was great.

Friday I went right to work to make up some time from leaving for class, like usual. It was very busy at work. I finished up all my tasks from Thursday and managed to get something else done too. After a quick lunch of chicken noodle soup and garden salad, I headed off to Kenmore to explore some riverfront and photograph. Aaaah! It was great! I have so many that I'm pleased with, it's going to be hard to choose which to print. When I got back home (after the sun was gone) my sister and I went to Woodinville to poke around at Target. We stopped off at Taco Time for a brief dinner, and then continued on. I ended up coming out with two new knight figurines, both Schleich models. I have a weakness for historical-looking knight figurines. One is a crusader on horseback, and the other is an archer kneeling. Both were very different from the others I have, and they are very cool. You've got to hand it to the Germans. They make great stuff! Crusader figurines always make me think of my Senior Seminar at the U... History of the First Crusade... very interesting, engaging and fun class.

Monk was pretty darn good tonight! Sad, for sure, but very well done. Loved Monk's reaction at the video at the end... liked how he's enduring doing things he doesn't like... climbing in boxes, getting hugged... the magician was great too! I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!! If they let us down this time, I will give up hope for sure.

It's way past my bedtime... 2:03 AM as I type...
Good night! Good morning! Won't you be my... valentine?

Jp