What does one do when you don’t want to write but you want to let people know what you’re up to? Vlog about it.  Hope you enjoy!

Every time, I mean every time. I look at my live journal I swear to myself that I’m going to write more. I challenge myself with writing a few times a week in this thing. I don’t know why I think it’s so important to write here. I suppose it’s more therapy for me and documenting my life than anything else. I don’t have a ton of internet friends that read my journal. I’ve got several friends but I’m fortunate enough that for the most part they live close which means I can pick up the phone, or they can. As for family, my mother and Eric’s mother read these posts and then that’s when I get a phone call to see how things are. Yet still, I feel the need to write here. So I continue. If it’s boring, sorry… I guess that’s my life…

SO today I’m home again from work. I woke up yesterday with a subnormal temperature, which means a virus. I woke up today and still didn’t feel wonderful. I’m trying to do more than just sleep and watch TV like I did yesterday, which is probably a mistake but I’m not one to sit all day and do nothing. Darn Christian work ethic! So I’m trying to take it easy today, but it’s not working well. Today the appraiser comes to appraise the house for us. I think it’s going to be interesting to see what the value of the house is with the improvements we’ve made and the market right now. We’re also going to ask him about the kitchen and the counters, namely should we redo them? Would we get the money back in a sale? I really want to redo them but it might be better to make our money work for us in other ways. SO we’ll see.

I also got a call today from Indigo Rescue. They help find foster families for dogs in shelters so the dogs can live longer. We might be getting a dog today, if it passes the cat test. Supposedly it’s a big dog, like a husky/malamute or something way too big for us on a permanent basis but if it means we save her from the gas chamber, then it’s worth it. Hopefully she’ll get adopted soon and we’ll get to host another dog.

OH, I went to Craft Warehouse the other day to buy some Amy Butler fabric for a quilt I want to make for the guest bedroom. They were so cool. They cut it all for me and then encouraged me to have them hold it until the 12th of November when they have their holiday open house and I can get the whole thing for 40% off. Well of course I did that so now I’ve got a great project waiting for me to complete before Thanksgiving. I’m thinking I might go up to see my mom a few days before Thanksgiving so she can help me with it as it will be my first bed quilt. I’ve been knitting a little bit lately and I like it but I don’t love it like scrapbooking and sewing and quilting and things. It also aggravates my hand a little bit I think so I probably won’t be able to do a lot of that.

Other than that, not a lot has been going on lately. My hand is doing OK. some days are good, some not so good. I’m supposed to go to some hearing in November on it and I guess I’ll find out then if the judge will find in my favor. My lawyer had me complete another claim for the deQuervains Tensynovitis so we’ll see what happens with that one. I just want Intel to cover what they should. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that one.

I’ve been thinking a lot, about a lot of things lately with all sorts of things. Work … and personal life things. I’ll start with the last first. Eric’s started school two weeks ago which means I’m home at night by myself three nights a week. It gives me a great opportunity to do a couple of things. I could work out every night, go for long walks with the dog or make some more friends. I’ve been thinking about the latter a lot lately. I have a very few number for great friends and the ones I have are all over the country from Texas to Bellingham, Washington and all parts in between. I realize that I have this great opportunity to meet people outside of work and not feel guilty about not spending time with Eric since he’s at school at the same time. SO, my answer is a few things. I just found a group that meets on Mondays over one of my hobbies for a few hours at a coffee shop. I think I’m going to start going there on Monday nights and then I found a great book club that meets once a month to talk about a mystery book. I figure these two things would be great for me to do. I’ll meet people outside of work and develop friendships too. I just hope I have the guts to do them both. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not super outgoing in new situations. I’m one of those people who hand in the background when I’m in a new situation but I think these two things will be great for me.

As for work. and interesting thing happened the other day, not at work, but with a friend. We were talking about things and she asked me what I did at work. My replay, “I build online training courses”. Usually when I say that people give me the, “that’s cool”, almost like they don’t know what that means and don’t want to ask more and show that they don’t get it. She called me on the carpet and asked me what did I really do. She wanted to know it all. I really appreciated that. I sat with her and explained how the whole process works and what it is that I really do. I told her everything and it made me think, I don’t know if my friends, outside Intel really know what I do. Then I was reading my brother-in-laws blog gregtitus the other day and got a great idea. I should sit down sometime and really explain my job to the people in my life. To me I don’t usually say much about it because it’s old hat to me and/or I think people are bored with it but maybe I’ll put a post here soon and explain it all. Thanks for the great idea Greg!

I’m also looking at improving my web skills and design knowledge by learning Flash better. Right now I’m not even a novice Flash user and I need to learn more. I’m considering taking a class at PCC next quarter, my department will pay for it too. SO we’ll see how that goes. I sort of miss the whole academia thing. I loved it when I was in school for my masters degree.

Well, I’ve got a great book to read, Killer Pancake by DMD (Diane Mott Davidson) so I should go. Hopefully, with any luck I’ll get to writing in this journal more often.

It’s only Tuesday and already this week is shaping up to be a little nuts. Eric started school this week which means he’s in class most nights 6-10pm. He’s also working part-time not so Tuesday’s he’s at work and then off to school and then home. This last weekend he worked 20 hours in three days. He worked Friday, half of Saturday and all Sunday. SO in the last oh… four days we’ve seen each other about half as much as we usually do. That can be go and that can be bad. I haven’t figured out which yet.

What I have realized is that when it comes to dinner we’re in the “fend for yourself” mode. Which means, by the time I get home, Eric’s gone to school and there’s no dinner. Waiting for him means waiting until 10pm which isn’t a good idea either so. We fend for ourselves. I’m actually thinking of improving my casserole recipe selection so that a casserole can go in the oven and get cooked so Eric can have an early dinner, then I get home and have my dinner. It’s only the first week but I’m sure we’ll figure this out. I know Eric feels a lot better about what he’s doing and has a sense of accomplishment so that’s good.

Eric’s working most weekends so that doesn’t give us much of an opportunity to visit family or friends on the weekends any more, at least for the next two months since the schedule is out. I suppose that’s not that big of a deal anyway since we don’t have many plans. My annual trip to the Washington Scrapbook convention is a no go and that’s about the only thing I had planned from now until Thanksgiving when everyone will be down here anyway. I suppose it’s a good thing to because it saves on gas besides, where would I go visit? Othello? My mom wouldn’t know what to do if I saw her more than a few times a year, besides she’s got school and all that stuff going on. SO we’re pretty much tied to Portland for a while…SO if you want to see us I guess you’ll have to come down here, or I can come visit you but for the most part, Eric works the weekends.

Time for dinner… mmmmm mac n cheese…at least Eric can’t taint this batch with his “improvements”

You know it’s not often that any of us get a relaxing weekend of doing much of nothing and yet… still feeling like we got something done. This was that sort of weekend for me. Saturday morning found me in bed until 10am. I’m rarely, if ever, in bed that lat but I’d decided the night before I was going to stay in bed and relax until I just couldn’t any more. Man…. did sleeping in feel good. I got up yesterday and felt so well rested. I think I’ve been going to bed too late lately and not getting enough sleep. Eric and I didn’t do much of anything Saturday but sit around, reading and I did a bit of cooking, well, baking really. It was just so nice not to have anywhere to go or anything to do and just do much of nothing. I did work on work stuff for a while, but other than that. Just reading, relaxing and watching a bit of TV.

Today wasn’t much different. It was another late morning for us. I got up when Baylee made it clear she’d had enough of the sleeping in and need to go outside. She raced down the stairs as I took her to the back yard. I decided today rather than the usual waffles or something for breakfast I’d do a little better. I ended up making a crustless quiche with fresh from the garden tomatoes, basil and goat cheese. I also made homemade hash browns with red potatoes and then we had homemade English muffins I’d made Thursday night. It was a really nice breakfast. I had a good time make it. I spent the rest of the day finishing the book I’d started the night before and lounging around. I still can’t believe Eric and I both stayed up until 3 am Sunday morning reading our respective books. It took him only a day to read the new Harry Potter book and I started and finished another of the Diane Mott Davidson books. I love her as an author. Her stories are great. I’m determined to read all 12 of her books. I’ve got 2 read, just 10 left to go.

Well, I’m up to bed so I can get to sleep early and start the week. Just two more weeks and we go camping. I can’t wait.