Happy birthday Allison and Micah!

for my nephew..

The request was for a Micah bag - so he could carry toys....

I had been saving an old pair of corderoys for this very thing....

4 pockets in front - 2 made from the old pants pockets, and 2 velcro pockets.  Yes, I still own those Cheerios pencils from elementary school. 

Inside fabric....yay for Cars coming back into style so I could use the rest of my fabric.  :)

for my sister...

Yes.  Another purse.  BUT....its made from a placemat!!! 

I just realized i forgot to put in a pocket on the inside.  Sorry, Allison. 

One of the best part about nieces and nephews....

Happy birthday Allison and Micah!!!

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. ~ Lucille Ball

Whaling days

Today I caught some local culture at Whaling Days...

Part of the Silverdale waterfront

Another part of the waterfront.  I've gotten used to living by the water.  Its nice.

Ahhhh...people and booths.  Nothing interesting to buy though.

Fair food!!!! 

Grace and her mound of curly fries

The rides were old and fairly creepy.  We took guesses when they were made...

I did get on one of these though....

And one of these.  I got a neck cramp trying to keep my head from being whipped off around the curves. 

Nothing beats local fun days!

Happy weekend to me!!!

Life is the game that must be played.  ~ Edwin Arlington Robinson

The first rule

The first rule in blogging should be along the lines of "will not blog when angry/upset/frustrated/other intense ugly emotion."  Mine would read "will not blog when I'm fresh off work or having a bad day."  I'm going to break that rule now, but I'm going to try to be good about it. 

All I'm going to say about work is that I actually sat there and felt my stress level rise via my blood pressure.  Luckily I have low blood pressure so it can rise for a long time before it reaches dangerous levels.  Also, I could not leave the room to get a cup of coffee, so I am currently caffeine deficient.  Normally I have between 2-3 large or extra large cups of coffee in the 2-4 hours before i go home.  My doctor says I should stop doing that.  Meh. 

Got home, and saw that my poor dog had thrown up on the living room carpet and had done a much worse biological function on my kitchen floor.  At least he had the sense to go in the kitchen. 

Walked him, cleaned and scrubbed and bleached, and am now having some quiet time with my computer and a glass of wine.  Although I think the wine is overkill.  Without coffee I'm pretty close to falling asleep while sitting up.

Somewhere in between the cleaning and bleaching I realized that I had forgotten to do laundry last night, so I can't go to the gym today if I don't get the laundry done.  So, the washer is my background white noise, if you will. 

I'm also wondering what made Atticus so sick...the only change in diet recently is I made him some treats.  The same treats I've made several times before, but this time I used organic turkey baby food.  I'm wondering if thats the problem.  He'll be very sad if he doesn't get the rest of his treats but I don't want to come home tomorrow to any more carpet scrubbing. 

*sigh*   What a life. 

Atticus, during a happier, sunnier time....

The worst-tempered people I've ever met were people who knew they were wrong.
~ Wilson Mizner

So far today...

So far today....

...I was woken up 3 hours after I had gotten to sleep by a whining Atticus.  Turns out he didn't feel well, so I took him outside for some serious bathroom issues.

...Ended up walking face first into a spider-web.  Luckily my eyes were still half closed (perhaps the reason for the first sentence), so I just stood there and flailed for a bit and have no idea if anyone saw me at all....bed head, ratty robe, flapping my hands at invisibleness in front of my face.

...Had to PULL Atticus back inside because he wanted to lay in the sun after he was finished.  I wanted to lay in the sun too, but I wanted to sleep a lot more. 

...Went back to bed where I was woken up 3 hours later...this time by my own biological need and the 4 cups of coffee I had this morning at work.

...Gave up on trying to sleep. 

...Attempted to make smart use of my time and clean up some dishes while toasting a breakfast bagel and ended up knocking over a wine glass onto my counter where it broke into 3 main pieces and dozens of tiny shards.  I'm more upset over the wine glass than the cleanup.  After all, I only have (had) 2 wine glasses, and they actually matched.  Granted, I got them at goodwill for like 99 cents over a year ago, but still.  They MATCHED.

...I didn't even mention yet the required emergency training I tried to do this morning at work that was literally so BORING I was unable to read it.  My eyes glazed over every time I started to read a sentence.  I ended up staring at the same words for 5 minutes, shake my head, and try again.  I did that for 2 hours before I finally gave up.  I can't even begin to describe how biologically impossible it was for me to read the training - it was like my brain and eyes were in cahoots and refused to cooperate. 

...Nor did I mention the 2 hours after the above incident in which I mentally bashed my head against my keyboard because I found that common sense has been lost.  "Alicia, I can't get my password to work."  "Your sign-in name is case-sensitive, did you check that?".  "Yes...*whine*....can you come over here and help me???"  I walked over, looked at the computer screen where the sign in name was entered as joe smith (not the real name) and repeated "Your sign-in name is case sensitive."  "Oh....my sign in name is case sensitive???"  This happened to 2 people!!!!  Then I heard one of the people help the third person in the room and repeat the SAME FREAKING THING I JUST MENTIONED 4 TIMES, NOT TO MENTION THE 12 TIMES I'VE HARPED ON IT BEFORE. 

*Deep breath*

I feel better now.

In other news, I had my first several hours with my trainee last night.  I think they went well.  Mentally exhausting, but I'm excited about the possibilities. 

I bought an iPod shuffle recently, which has been a good motivator to get to the gym when I'm not feeling like it.  Kinda like now. 

My goal today is 500 calories.

Beware the fury of a patient man. 
~ John Dryden

You know its a good weekend when...

...you forget all about work...

...and instead have lunch with a friend, buy $40 worth of fruit at Costco (I make an awesome fruit salad - mangoes, peaches, blueberries, grapes, and cherries!), chill at the dog park...

...read a new book, snuggle with a dog watching my latest obsession on hulu (The Dead Zone), sleep in, celebrate a friend's new life at a BBQ...

30% chance of rain, my butt...

...and end it tonight with step class, and hopefully some more dog snuggling. 

Pretty much perfect.

Now, if I could somehow talk myself out of wanting to do Hell Run, I might be doing better.  (I found someone who wants to walk it with me!)

The years teach much which the days never knew. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Genius?

Its finally sunny here again!!!!  We had beautiful weather for most of June, but then July it turned overcast and 50-60 degrees every day.  For almost a month.  Just when I had given up hope that summer was ever coming back, it came back today!!! 

I have a busy couple of days planned...errands and fun things etc.  Then this week at work I start with my new trainee. 

Either I'm a dork or a genius....   I wrapped a fellow sewer's birthday present with a fat quarter and some baking twine.  Oh, and a homemade tag.  Yes...she has dogs too. 

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. ~ Henry van Dyke

Alicia and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad....

I had a crappy night.  5 minutes into my shift I put a caller on hold who wanted to tell me a 15 minute story involving a complaint about something extremely ridiculous, which spiraled into him hanging up and calling back wanting to complain about me.  ME.  Argh.  I think I pacified him, but there's no telling.  So I had a pit in my stomach most of the night about how I should have dealt with the caller better etc.  Then, when on the internet, I went to type in an intranet site but accidentally put ".com" at the end - which took me to an internet site, which sent up an internal flag that went to my company's computer geeks.  After realizing my mistake I quickly X'd out of the site and went to the right one, but I got a call 3 hours later saying my computer was flagged and did I go to so and so site, because it accessed a European website, and they just wanted to figure out if it was me or a bug....

Just stupid stuff, but it had me in a tither.  This was while I was trying to set up an interesting agenda for a leadership meeting that I'm running (!!), and my creativity was zapped.  The agenda was due this morning.  I got it done, but I'm still questioning myself. 

I did fess up to my supervisor this morning all the stupid stuff I did last night and his reaction was that it wasn't a big deal but I did right by telling him.  So I do feel a little better.

So, I came home...chilled with Atticus for a little, now I'm drinking some breakfast wine (raspberry...its okay) and blogging before I fall asleep. 

I got my proofs back for the Warrior Dash - they're not as bad as I thought.  (A company takes photos of everyone and then sells them for overly inflated prices).  I might order one overly pricey picture of me jumping over fire or slogging through mud.  We'll see. 

I'll leave you with another couple of pictures that make me smile...my Christmas present from my dad.  (Thanks, Dad!!!!)

Part 1

Part 2

Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling? ~ M.C. Escher