LolaGeek

What have I been doing for the past month?

• GG planned an awesome dinner for us at Garces Trading Company. He said it was to thank me for doing our taxes and taking care of him while he was sick with the flu, which is very sweet of him, but I think really we both just wanted an excuse to go there again :o) Of course we started with a cheese plate, and GG asked for one cheese in particular to be included, which they forgot (it’s usually just the chef’s selection), so later the waiter brought out a whole plate of just this one cheese for us! It was good, but… that was a lot of cheese! So thoughtful of them, though! We shared a Roasted Baby Beet salad, but it was mostly mine, and it was amazing. Then we each got one of their flatbreads, and for dessert we had Smoked Chocolate Torte with Salted Carmel.
• We went to Washington, DC for a birthday party the Saturday night before Easter. It was at a very neat bar that rents out board games and doesn’t serve any food, but you can bring in your own food, so they had the party catered. They also had an amazing game-themed cake! The best part was getting to meet all of my friend’s friends, who I’ve heard a lot about and had seen on Facebook. They were all very smart and funny, as I’d imagined. And I got to play Mr. Bacon’s Big Adventure. Coming home on Sunday morning, GG’s tire slowly exploded, which was not cool, but he ended up getting two new tires, so it’s all good. Things could have been a lot worse.
• Right after getting home from DC, I turned around and left for a 3-day business trip to CT. I drove up with two co-workers, had one day at the office up there, packed with meetings, and then we had a whole departmental meeting for a full day before heading back home. It was great to see everyone – I wish we had the opportunity more often.
• The day I came home, GG had left for Kentucky, to visit friends. He was gone for five days, and had a great time. If my big work meeting weren’t that same week, I probably would have gone with him, but it was probably for the best because I’m not really interested in all the distillery tours…
• I went to a party hosted by one of my oldest friends from elementary school. We see each other about once a year now. I got to meet her best friend from college, and this girl and I wore pretty much the exact same outfit! Coincidence? Haha!
• I don’t know if it was because of the cheese class we took, or if that was just the next stepping stone in my cheese addiction, but I’m seeing and recognizing more cheeses, and realizing that I know stuff about them. We spot different cheeses we recognize while we’re out and about; I’ve been recording this show Cheese Chasers, and sometimes he talks about things I already know about different cheeses and how they’re made; and last week a co-worker told me about this cheese with a funny name, and when I looked it up I realized that I was familiar with another cheese that’s made by this one particular farm. I also ordered a cheesemaking kit (which, as I was told, is like an alcoholic opening their own distillery – but I decided I really just enjoy eating cheese, I don’t need to do the work of producing it).
• It got really warm! And then it rained a lot. And then it got cold. But today was nice.
• Today, GG and I took the train in to Philly for the Philly Farm & Food Fest. It was way more crowded than I’d expected. We went through the big exhibit hall, looking at booths and trying food samples. Then we went to the one workshop we were interested in, given by Josh Lawler of The Farm and Fisherman. The restaurant is known for its Bloody Beet Steak, and his recipe that was printed in the show’s program even involved beets, so I figured it would be a beet thing. Nope! He taught us how to butcher a lamb! We ducked out a little early so we could instead get dinner at the Reading Terminal Market before catching the train home.
• How am I doing on my 2013 goals? Well, I am exactly right on track with book reading – but I will need to finish one book every 2 weeks from now through the end of the year to keep up. It’s not that I’m a bad reader, but a lot of times it takes me a while to get into a story, so I sit on it for a while. If I just powered through it, I’d be able to fit a lot more books into my schedule. I just finished Gone Girl, which was recommended by someone I work with because I think she wanted someone to discuss it with! As far as the other goals … Well this is my first (and likely last) blog post for April, and don’t ask me about the “just because” cards.

Ok, not children, but people who are ~10 years younger than me. Last Thursday I went out to my alma mater for an “Alumni Mixer” my fraternity was putting on. I hadn’t seen the current brotherhood for a while, and also a couple other alumni I knew were there, so it was fun to see everybody. My own lineage has apparently exploded, and it was so cool to meet these people who know me in name only! I learned that I am very unfamiliar with the music and dance moves of today’s young people (have you ever heard of “Bernieing?”). They were all really cool kids, and I had a great time meeting everyone. I had sent a (small, in my opinion) donation earlier this semester, and they were all so appreciative. They had even passed around a thank you card at a recent meeting for everyone to sign for me. I was really flattered. Hopefully I can do something else to help them out a little more this semester.

I knew I’d be getting home late on Thursday night, so I preemptively took Friday off work. Being the 15th of the month, I did have to get online to do one thing, and there was an inspection going on in the UK so I had to be on-call in case of any requests, but other than that I really did have the day off. After doing my one thing first thing in the morning, I got back in bed and… accidentally fell asleep until like 11:30 :o/ I finally did get up, did some errands, then… took another nap. Then it was time to get ready, because…

On Friday night, GG and I took the train in to Philly and went to Cheese 101! Remember a couple years ago when I said I’d like to go to a “cheese tasting?” Around that same time, someone recommended the classes at Tria, so I signed up for their e-mail newsletter so I could keep an eye on what classes were offered. Most of the classes I was not interested in (most are about wine, or wine and cheese pairings), or they were not at a convenient time. After a couple years of getting their e-mails, I was seriously about to unsubscribe myself from the one I received this week, when I saw it: Cheese 101 offered on Friday night, and we were free! I signed us up immediately! I’m so glad we got this opportunity. It was really a great experience! The class was two hours long, and was led by the guy who is in charge of cheese for Tria – he is young and really excited about cheese. We learned all about how different cheeses are made, and the history of how different cheeses came to be in different regions. Oh and we got to sample all sixteen cheeses currently on the menu at Tria. (I was especially proud of GG for trying all the cheeses, even the runny ones and stinky ones. I starred my favorites on the list; he ranked each one with a face.) It was really awesome.

We were thinking of going to Monk’s for dinner afterward, but all that cheese was really filling! So as we were walking back to the train, we thought we’d go to this Insomnia Cookies place we’d noticed on the way to the class. Then we made a last-minute decision to go next door to Honeygrow which seemed a little healthier and lighter. We’d never been there or heard of it, but I was intrigued by the touch-screen ordering system. We each ordered the honeybar, which is basically a bowl of fruit with honey on it. I had banana, strawberry, blueberry, and mango with wildflower honey, almonds, and Greek yogurt. It was a really neat idea, and the perfect (relatively healthy) way to round out our evening.

• Had an all-day workshop at work on Valentine’s Day, but at least I didn’t have to travel to New York City for it, as originally suggested. The whole thing went pretty well, but I ended the day with a major headache and just went home and crashed.
• Went out for a nice Valentines dinner on Friday night, to a local restaurant we hadn’t been to before. It was nice, but I don’t know if I would go back. Among other things, I asked for my steak well done and it was bright red and bloody throughout. And I ordered the raspberry sorbet for dessert and they brought out a giant bowl with at least a pint of sorbet in it. It was like they took a whole container and dumped it into the bowl as a joke. Also we were accosted by a man in a bear costume on our way out (it is next door to a theater, and they were about to put on an outdoor show).
• For two weeks in a row, I had 33% savings on our weekly food shopping (I would like to thank Extreme Couponers). Then last week, GG came shopping with me, and our savings was 9%. Boo.
• We went to the Franklin Institute on Presidents’ Day to see the Titanic exhibit. It was very good. But I underestimated the amount of kids that would be there… Of course there were lots of kids, they had the day off school and their parents wanted to take them somewhere educational. We were the only adults there without kids of our own. We did go through the rest of the museum anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Bloodmobile playing near the heart exhibit! (Of course, now that I’m looking at the wiki, I see it was written for the Franklin Institute!)
• My side job is going extremely well, and this has been an especially exciting couple of weeks. I have lots of exciting plans in the works and am making great connections, which is really the best part of all.
• I got discount tickets so we went to the local Home Show at the expo center, which we should really stop doing. It’s like being in a live version of those coupon packets you get in the mail every couple weeks for gutter guards and replacement windows. Except they’re in person and talking to you. We don’t need any of that. There was a stand with some dip mixes, which I am a fan of, and someone selling hot pickles, which GG went nuts over, so we didn’t leave empty handed.
• We had kind of an “oppressed peoples movie night” last night. GG rented “The Help,” which we watched over dinner. It was pretty good. I liked that they didn’t change too much from the book, though there were a lot of things left out (for the sake of time, I’m sure). Then I had to go make some phone calls, and when I got back, GG had “Schindler’s List” on, so I watched the end of that as well.

So much for being a better blogger :o( Speaking of which, last call to take the reader survey!

Things I’ve done since I last wrote:

• Went to the PA Farm Show. Had a very long day looking at animals and farm equipment and eating all the food. Once again GG proves that you can’t take him anywhere! (At first it was kind of amusing, but after a while I think our friends L and S were getting just as frustrated as I was that he has to talk to every vendor or presenter… We wanted to go see stuff!)
• We had our big learning event at work. This is the third year and every time it’s been a little different. The first year, we had on-site events and tons of technical issues with the online part. Last year we kept it very simple and everything was online, very few problems. This year, we went back to having on-site and online events, and there are two 6-hour weeks (instead of one 12-hour week), one in January and one in July. It’s just as much work for us running it each time though, so it basically doubled our work. But everything went very smoothly, plus we had our contractor from Michigan in town, and it is always fun hanging out with her. I had a couple of the girls over for dinner one night, which was a hit.
• GG and I went to dinner with one of my very oldest friends and her boyfriend. She’s given me my last two annual haircuts, actually, and last year we decided that we should do dinner, but it took until this year to actually plan it. It was a lot of fun. We lost touch a little through high school and college (she moved away), but now thanks to Facebook we’ve reconnected, and we can still talk up a storm like we never spent any time apart. That’s the sign of a good friendship.
• I went out over the holiday weekend to take advantage of some sales and restock my work wardrobe. (Best deals: NY&Co was selling tons of stuff for $10 a piece. I ended up getting a bag full of clothes for the price of one of those items regularly!) Turns out every item I purchased was black, gray, or purple. (I would’ve gotten turquoise or teal things too, but those don’t seem to be in style this season…)
• I had two events for my side job. One of which was my biggest ever. The other required me to drive out in the rush hour snowstorm we had on Friday (it took almost three hours to travel what normally would take an hour), and GG came with me out of concern for my safety :o) (and because I talked him into it). I still made it and it went well, though!
• We went to see Jim Gaffigan at the Tower Theater! My friend J had asked me months ago if we’d be interested in going with her and her husband S, and got tickets. Then MB mentioned that she had gotten tickets to the same show for A’s birthday! So the six of us ended up going together, going out to dinner, and then to the show. They all actually met each other 5 years ago at my 25th birthday party, but I’m not surprised they don’t remember each other. They are the parents of all our favorite superbabies, so it was cool to get them together. Oh and the show was fabulous! My face hurt by the end from laughing the whole time. I loved the routine about shellfish and seafood, because I don’t eat it and feel exactly the same way!

Also, I’ve been reading on my Kindle, and watching TV (yes, I cried at the Fringe finale, and I will probably cry this week at the 30 Rock finale, and the upcoming finale of The Office).

Looking forward to a couple restful weeks coming up, because I see another busy period on the horizon…

To pick up where I left off… We decided to have a very casual, informal, early dinner party on New Year’s Eve (after which people were welcome to go out somewhere more exciting, go home, etc. before midnight). The number of people who were going to attend kept increasing, so on Saturday morning, GG accompanied me on a frantic shopping trip to get everything needed for the party. Frantic because it was supposed to start snowing sometime that day. We were out for a couple hours, and literally the moment we got home, it started snowing!

And then the snow continued… and continued… We had at least 4″ by the time it stopped around 5 PM. We’d been planning to see Les Miserables that afternoon, but that plan was obviously out, so I just resigned myself to the fact that was not happening. Then a couple kids came around to try to shovel our driveway, and I didn’t want to pay people for that, so I was like, “Well, I guess it’s time to shovel.” It actually was good shoveling snow – by the time GG had cleaned off his car, I had shoveled the whole driveway and sidewalk myself. And since everything was clear… we could go see Les Mis! It was awesome. I saw it live years ago and for most of my childhood I had the soundtrack memorized, but it had been a while. My one real complaint was that, while it may work on stage, just focusing on a single person’s face singing a solo piece doesn’t really lend itself to film so well. I wish they had done something more interesting, considering they had the medium of film to work with. For example, in “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” I always imagined it with the ghosts of the guys sitting around – couldn’t they have added in some ghost dudes? GG also enjoyed it (he was actually seeing it voluntarily, after being impressed by the cinematography when he saw a preview while at a different movie), but you should have seen the face he made when, after “One Day More,” I whispered, “And that’s the end of Act 1.”

On Sunday we went to the UPenn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to see the Maya 2012 exhibit. I’d been wanting to go since it opened, and of course now that it was about to end we finally went. It was actually a really good exhibit. Lots of multi-media, different ways to get your interest. And pretty informative, too, even for a Maya geek like me. I also like the way it was laid out, explaining how the Mayan writing and calendar systems worked, then showing examples, explaining about specific sites (Copan), and then finishing up with modern Mayans. After the museum, we went to Percy Street Barbecue for lunch. GG had been talking this place (and their mac & cheese) up for weeks, but honestly… I was not impressed. Their claim to fame seems to be that they have the largest selection of canned beer in the country, and the food was not all that amazing. When we got home, I prepped all the food for NYE dinner that I could do in advance.

Monday was our NYE party, so I spent the day cleaning and cooking. I actually thought I’d started cooking kind of early, but I was actually still cooking when our guests got there at 6 PM. Oh yeah, at some point in the previous two days, the number of people we were expecting got up to about 12, which was way too many for me, and then down to six as everyone started coming down with some cold/flu thing. Everyone kept saying how bad they felt about canceling, but I was secretly happy. We ended up with two other couples (and our favorite baby), and that was pretty perfect. The food all turned out pretty good – it was mostly stuff I’d found on Pinterest. There were a couple things I wouldn’t do again. The big hit of the night was the Hot Chocolate Bar – everyone got a mug of chocolate, which they could dress up with toppings like marshmallows, sprinkles, caramel, candy canes, and cookie sticks. I would definitely do that again for a winter party. Anyway, everyone had cleared out by 11 PM and I passed out on the sofa. GG woke me at 11:59:55 and I counted down the last five seconds to midnight, drank my glass of sparkling cider, and fell back asleep.

Tuesday was my last day of vacation, and the first day that I could really relax. Obviously I’d given up on my home project by this point. So I spent the day on the couch with my favorite Christmas gift. I also finally ordered my Kindle! And I watched about 9000 episodes of “Buying Alaska,” which really makes those losers on “House Hunters” look like wimps.

My short workweek was a good introduction back to working, and luckily not everyone was back from vacation yet, so it was fairly quiet. A lot of those who were back were out sick. And eventually the cold caught up to me – I was sneezing and sniffling on Thursday, miserable on Friday and most of Saturday, but recovering by Sunday. I’m pretty much back to normal today. I would like to thank the power of Vitamin C!

Oh, and guess what arrived on Saturday afternoon, several days earlier than anticipated? My Kindle! It’s the new Paperwhite version. It’s so tiny, but really it’s the perfect size. I also ordered a case for it, which is due to arrive this week. I figured out how to get ebooks from my library, and have already almost finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

2013 Goals:

• Read 25 books (I think that’s doable)
• Send 2 cards/letters per month to people just to let them know I’m thinking of them
• Be a better blogger (more on this soon – watch for a reader survey!)

The last few weeks have been all about the holidays. MB, L, and I had our annual “take a day off work and go shopping in KoP” day, which was lots of fun but a long day. At work we never really got a party for our department, but a couple of us got together for a happy hour, which was… interesting… and we also had our huge site holiday celebration, which was fun because I was with friends and got to see some other people I used to work with, but compared to the last two years’ celebrations it was kind of lame, food-wise. (I actually felt bad, because I’d been talking it up to some new people who hadn’t been to one yet, and then it was kind of a let-down.) We also had a holiday party at L and S’s place in Harrisburg (the same day as like 3 other holiday parties we were invited to!)

This has been a really busy holiday break. I usually try to plan a project around the house to do while I’m off work, but I just haven’t had a free day to work on anything! Which is not a bad thing – and maybe I’ll take a random day off in the new year to paint the bedroom I was hoping to do this week.

My time off started on Friday, Which I used to run some errands. Saturday and Sunday I cleaned and prepared for Christmas, and finished up shopping and wrapping. Monday I cleaned, prepped food, and went to Christmas Eve dinner with GG’s family. On Christmas, my family came to our house for lunch and presents, and then we went to GG’s parents’ house for presents and dinner with them. Everything went really well on Christmas, and especially for my part of it, I think everybody enjoyed the food I served and the gifts I gave, so I felt good :o)

The day after Christmas, we went out to NJ to visit with MB, A, and baby R for the day. That baby is not even two years old and knows every letter of the alphabet!. If you start her off, she can sing a number of Christmas carols reasonably well. She’s pretty funny, too. I was playing Play-Doh with her while MB made dinner, and she knew all the shapes and colors and animals I was making. She also knows all the animal sounds, except I did teach her that night about the sound an elephant makes. And I taught her a new phrase, “raise the roof!” (with accompanying roof-raising hand motion). GG and A had fun playing guitar for hours and hours and hours. MB and I chatted, and MB made the most awesome chicken fajitas ever – she sent me the recipe for the marinade, can’t wait to try it next week!

Thursday was our day for what has become a holiday tradition: take the train into Philly and see the Comcast Center holiday show, then have lunch at DiBruno Brothers. The show this year was pretty much the same as last year’s, but we got there a little early so we got to see more of the little bits they show between the hourly holiday shows. The best part was that they randomly showed all these clips of Charleston, SC! GG and I were freaking out, like, was this planned just for us?! He asked the people there, and they said they have clips of 27 cities that are shown at random – I think it was a sign for us though! Like last year, there was some foam “snow” that fell at the end of the show. New additions this year were that the giant “presents” behind us lit up (they may have done that before, but I didn’t remember it), and there were some bright flashing lights that lit up at certain points in the music. Lunch was also nice, and then we wandered over to the cheese counter, tried some things, and went home with a couple wedges..!

Today was my annual haircut. I didn’t get as dramatic a chop as I usually do, but I figure by the end of next summer I’ll be ready for another haircut and will have enough to donate for sure. I just wanted to get it done now because the length was bugging me and the ends were a little scraggly. No photos yet, but I’m sure there will be some soon because tonight I get my big Christmas gift from GG, a fancy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants! Stay tuned…

Still to come this week: seeing Les Mis, going to the Maya exhibit at the UPenn museum, hosting some sort of New Year’s event, and maybe a trip to Home Depot to at least get the supplies for my project??

Now that my two insane weeks are over, I can finally breathe… a little… before the holidays start.

Two weeks ago was my big concert for band. I actually had taken a couple days off work since I have all these vacation days to use up, and it’s a good thing I did, because we ended up having lots of problems with weather and getting things printed for the concert, so I was running all over and doing some things last minute. Plus there was our dress rehearsal, which was an extra night out of my schedule, and our concert was on a Saturday, which is my usual “getting things done” day. I couldn’t even make up the time on Sunday, because we went out to Lancaster for the day to visit friends who are about to move to North Carolina. It was actually the first time I’d seen them in a while, so I got to meet their one-year old baby, who makes the best angry face! And MB and baby R were there! And also somehow I found the time to bake cookies to bring.

Then last week was our big face-to-face meeting at work that we weren’t even supposed to have. You may remember several months ago that I was on a committee to start planning for a F2F at our other site, then that became a virtual meeting. Then I went to DC with a few coworkers so we could at least get together on our own time. Then I was on a committee to start planning another virtual meeting, and we found out last minute it was actually going to be held here, in PA! It was just two days, but it was a really good meeting, and went much better than I’d expected. I ended up pretty much being in charge of the icebreaker activity, and I think everyone loved it! (We did human bingo.) We also got some extra time to spend with our boss after the second day, and he actually met GG… and I’m not fired… so that’s good.

I had a couple days to get caught up, and then my entire weekend was taken up with parties for my side job. My parties on Friday and Saturday were really good, but were about an hour away from home so I was out pretty late both nights. On Sunday I participated in a fundraiser for this animal organization (it was originally going to be another party, but then it turned to going to this event instead). I didn’t really fit in there – there is nothing animal-related about what I do. Plus, I thought this group was a cat rescue or something, but it was more like a PETA-type group. I was stationed next to a table where they played a video of pigs getting slaughtered and had pamphlets about all the companies you should boycot, and also this woman came around and offered me a copy of an essay she’d written from the perspective of a turkey on Thanksgiving. (I wish I still had it, but I gave it to a friend who was also working there. It was laughable.) GG had come with me to help out, and almost vomited after trying vegan lasagna. I was disappointed in the vegan mac & “cheese,” myself. So to make up for the afternoon, we went to Elevation Burger for dinner. And then I was so exhausted, I fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got home.

Looking forward to a calmer week, with only two Thanksgiving dinners (one of which is with friends), and hopefully less of a workload, since a lot of people seem to have taken the week off. I’m like two weeks behind on the DVR, too!

So it’s been a while, sorry. I had a whole thing I wanted to write about Chick-fil-A, but I didn’t want two topical posts back-to-back, so you’ll have to wait on that one.

We’ve been eating lots of corn on the cob. Except both GG and I prefer to cut it off the cob (a habit I picked up back when I had braces; we both hate getting it stuck in our teeth, plus it’s just a mess). How did I luck out enough to marry someone who eats corn the same weird way I do?!

Two friends had babies, and both now have a Jack :o) Natalie popped out her little nautical bundle on 7/17, and then a couple days later my coworker and friend H had her twins, Jack and Ryan, on 7/22. Those two were about 10 weeks early, though I’ve since been to visit H and seen pictures of the boys; they are healthy, eating, breathing, etc., just need to put on some weight before they can come home.

I’ve been half watching Project Runway 10 the past few weeks that it’s been on. It’s just hard to pay attention at this point when there’s still 10+ designers in the running. I’m sure I’ll focus when we’re closing in on a winner. Though this week looks to be saucy with Old Lady up and leaving in the night…

Lots of silly things happened at work, though this week will be a bit quiet since half my group is out on vacation. It’s a good time to catch up on stuff, though. (I’ve already caught up on a lot and it’s only Tuesday morning. I’ll have to pace myself.) We had this “breakfast with leadership” thing where we were supposed to mix and mingle with the leadership team, which barely happened, but I did meet someone in my own organization who sits down the hall but I’d not met in person before. Now we’re BFFs.

I stayed home from work with a one-day case of vertigo – I decided when I walked into a wall that I probably shouldn’t drive a car, plus I just couldn’t sit upright. But I could lay down, so that’s how I worked for much of the day, from my bed. (Thanks to working from home, there’s really no need to take a sick day anymore unless you’re absolutely dying.)

I watched the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics and then pretty much none of it since then. I either forget or I’m just not interested in whatever’s on. I watched some divers, and I would have watched gymnastics if I’d happened to catch it, but I didn’t. It’s ok, I learn what I need to know from NPR (just like the rest of my life).

Oh this was funny: I was out at lunch last week with my friend J – we just went across the street from our office. We were actually talking about religion, and vacation bible school and stuff (obviously I’m not particularly religious, and neither is she). About five girls came in and they were totally dressed like the Duggars: calf-length skirts, short-sleeved shirts, sandals, long hair. It was a little odd. Soon the restaurant was literally overrun with girls dressed like this, and guys in polos and khakis. It was like a Duggar convention! I saw some of them had name badges and looked up the name on them when I finally got a glimpse. Turns out there was some Christian music ministry class taking place, and they were all on lunch break. We just sat there, literally surrounded by these people, while we talked about Duggar-related issues. The funniest part was when J asked, “Are they saying grace before they eat?” and right then, this guy behind her closed his eyes and I assume said a silent prayer (and it was long) before digging in to his burrito.

And finally, my new business is going so well. Going into this, I thought, the minimum numbers you need to hit to remain active are so low, I should be able to make them, but I wasn’t really planning to being super successful or anything. They have this program for new Consultants where if you make certain goals within your first 30, 60, and 90 days, you get bonuses, and I hit the first one! And then the second one! And I’m on track to make the third one as well! For August, they’re doing another incentive with two levels – one at a certain amount, and one at twice that. I figured I’d be struggling to hit that lower one, but I’m actually almost at the higher one! The past three months with this have seriously been amazing – not to mention that it’s something I love doing. As has been my plan all along, I’m just going to ride this out and see what happens, but so far, the ride is going very well :o)

I haven’t done an actual life update for a little while, have I? I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. A couple Fridays ago, my friend JK and I drove up to Perkasie for a Scentsy/Thirty-One party. The girl selling Scentsy was a friend of mine from college (who I hadn’t seen since college!), and a friend of hers sells Thirty-One, so they teamed up. It was fun to see my old friend again, and all the other girls there were really nice, too. I bought a bunch of stuff and actually got talked into hosting a Thirty-One party of my own, so that’s coming up in a few weeks.

GG and I went to see The Cabin in the Woods. I don’t usually like to go to scary movies, but there was something weird about the preview and I was curious. The movie was fabulous! Yes, it had scary/gross moments, but it was super original, hilarious, and really turned the horror genre upside down. (I’d see it again just for the Japanese schoolgirl scenes.)

Between me, GG, and the cats, it seems like we’ve had nonstop doctor, dentist, and vet appointments the past couple of weeks. In addition to Ivan’s dental issues (he is already back to normal, by the way), I’ve also been having some jaw problems that warrant their own post that I’ve been meaning to write. I have two more medical appointments on the calendar this month, and then hopefully we’ll be done for another year. But I am thinking of trying acupuncture, so maybe more other appointments will be added soon…

Last week I had a three-day meeting at work with our boss and three of my co-workers, from a total of four different sites. This could be nightmarish to some people, but our little fraction of our team gets along really well, we got a lot done, and I think it was a really good week. I was talking to GG afterward and was kind of amazed: our group overall is kind of dysfunctional, and past team meetings have been awkward and unproductive. But the five of us work well together, get things done, and also get along as friends. We spent all day together and then had dinners together too. Thursday was the last day of our meeting, and that afternoon a friend of mine, who was in a different three-day meeting this week, IMed me because ice cream and toppings for 30 people had just been delivered to her conference room, but her group had finished up early and everyone left, so did we want to come over? It ended up being a big reunion of everyone from our old department who was still on-site, and it was nice to have everyone together to catch up for a little while. That night my other PA co-worker had us all over for dinner (minus our boss, he had to leave right after work – probably a good thing!), which turned into a late-night drinking and cupcake party. Because GG was there, of course, and he could talk all night if you let him. Anyway, it was a great week and great to see everyone and also to be able to just sit in a room together and get stuff done.

Today was kind of a waste. I woke up at 8AM and had a horrible headache that only got worse over the course of the day. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in bed, then finally felt well enough for about 15 minutes to brush my teeth, change, and move to the sofa, where I napped for a few more hours. I was starting to feel better around 4PM and ate some crackers, but even now, at 10PM, I still feel some traces of headache. Luckily, I was able to take some time this evening to do some of the chores I was planning to do today, but this was really bad, I had big plans and a lot to do today, and I really couldn’t get most of this stuff done. Maybe I’ll catch up tomorrow…

Last weekend GG and I drove out to NJ to visit MB and A. GG and A stayed home and played guitar all day, while MB and I went to lunch at her sister’s restaurant and then took advantage of the beautiful weather and took baby R to Grounds for Sculpture. MB has mentioned it many times, but I’ve never been and didn’t really understand what it was. It’s basically a huge sculpture park on the grounds of a former fair, so there’s some indoor areas but mostly it’s outdoor exhibits. A lot of the sculptures were done by Seward Johnson (of Johnson & Johnson), who is a sculptor and art fan, and created the park. Most of his pieces are realistic sculptures of people just sitting and standing around, and it’s sort of funny because you can sit with them, or they’re set up in places where you think there’s really somebody there. We had some fun posing R with some of the art.

There are also peacocks that are loose on the site, and R got to interact with them a bit. She toddled around after a beautiful white one, and it spread out its tail! I didn’t think she’d be able to catch up with it, and if she did get too close, I figured the peacock wouldn’t stand for it and would run away anyway. Nope – she grabbed a tail feather while the bird just stood there! But he did not look happy. As I did not want to see a baby get her eyes pecked out by a peacock that day, I did scoop her up and carried her around while we looked at the other peacocks sitting on their perch.

R is still the cutest baby and my favorite! After Grounds for Sculpture (and driving through Hamilton, NJ to see some of the other public sculptures in the town), we went back to MB and A’s house for dinner. We ended up hanging out kind of late, which I hadn’t wanted to do because I still had to get home and get ready for my business trip, so it was a bit of a late night, but of course we always enjoy seeing our favorite little family!

The rest of my week was all about work (and, luckily, was a lot of fun too). Two coworkers and I left on Monday afternoon for a week of meetings and stuff at our other site in CT. Usually we can get up there in around four hours, but because of a big accident on the highway, it took us more like six. We’d planned to drive about 40 minutes north to another town for dinner, but after sitting in the car all that time we didn’t really feel like it anymore. So we checked in at the hotel, then went to a nearby seafood place. The sun was just setting over the water when we arrived, and it was really nice.

On Tuesday we had team meetings at the office all day. The morning was just our training team, then we had a lunch break, and then the afternoon was a joint meeting of the training and compliance groups. We’re technically all one group now, but this is a recent thing – however, due to my position, I’ve been in both groups all along, so it was especially nice for me to have everyone together for once. There was a lot of good discussion, but as I’d predicted, nothing really got done, it was just a lot of talking and complaining. Still important for everyone to be able to discuss together, I think. Then we had a combined team dinner at a different seafood place on the water. We seem to always end up at this restaurant when I am up there. We had a lot of fun. The waiter was so strange – he kind of gave everyone a hard time, and joked around a lot. But in the end he turned out to be really funny. For example, one of the specials came with a “baby arugula salad,” and one of the ladies at our table was curious about this salad, but didn’t want the meal. He gave her a hard time and told her the arugula was only available with the special. But later, when he brought out desserts, he also brought her her own little bowl of arugula salad! Also, there is paper over the tables, and crayons, so we were having fun drawing things. In the photo here, she is posing with the arugula salad and a crayon drawing I did of her.

On Wednesday, I didn’t have any “official” meetings, so I just went about my regular business, working from the office up there. It was kind of fun! The office is all open, which is neat for once in a while, but I wouldn’t be able to work there every day. I also got to take advantage of their on-site IT help desk, because apparently I lost connection to the network and locked out my computer account! They couldn’t help me because I was not based at their site, though – they looked me up, saw what the problem was, and said, “But we can’t help you because you’re not a [CT site] person.” Then this other guy walks over: “And why aren’t you a [CT site] person?” I was like, “Um, because I’m a [PA site] person? I’m just here for the week.” They did phone the help desk for me, and they were able to help right away, but that was sort of weird. On Wednesday night I met up with another coworker who’d finally gotten into town, and we went out for dinner and a little walk around this coastal town. By the time we were done, my hair was a mess, what with the slight humidity of being close to the water all the time.

On Thursday we had our huge all-hands meeting. On one hand, it was kind of cheesy and scripted/staged, but on the other hand, it was actually pretty good. Also, I got to see a lot of people I rarely get to see (like my coworker from England who was in my group in our last company, too, and brought me a huge bag of British chocolates!). And I got to meet a lot of new people – both new people in our group who are based at other sites, and people I’ve been working with for a while but had just not met in person yet. For the first half of the day, we randomly chose numbers out of a basket and had to sit at that table number, which was actually a good way to get a mix of people from different groups at each table. But for the second part, we did get to sit and work with our own groups, so I got to be with all my buddies. Most people left after the meeting on Thursday, but I had to stay for something on Friday, so I wasn’t going anywhere. I ended up going to dinner with my boss and two good friends, which was really great. It’s always good to get a chance to get your boss’ ear for a while (plus he is a super great guy), and it was actually cool because the four of us are all from different sites, so this type of get-together would almost never happen. We went to S’s favorite local restaurant, which specializes in “Mediterrasian” food, sort of an Asian/Spanish tapas place.

On Friday morning, I was back at the office to help run a big presentation – we had over 200 people online! Everything went amazingly, and I’m glad I got to be there in person to help present. Afterwards, my two traveling companions and I started back home. We did stop for lunch, but still got home in about four hours. I took an epic afternoon nap, then went out to dinner with GG, and got online to do a little work I hadn’t had a chance to do with the spotty and slow hotel internet connection.

GG did a good job of holding down the fort while I was gone, but the poor kitties were pretty stressed out that I wasn’t there. They spent most of their days hiding from GG, except when it was feeding time. And they were throwing up all week. Poor babies. It took them about a day to get used to me being home again, but as of this evening, the three of them are all snuggled up and relaxing with me. I’m glad they’re happy now, but they really need to be able to survive for a week (not even a week!) without me!