Now it's personal

The rain is starting to threat my move schedule.  If the rain doesn't stop the slab won't dry.  If the slab doesn't dry the carpet won't adhere.  If the carpet won't adhere the installers won't install it.  If the carpet isn't installed the city won't award the certificate of occupancy.  Without a CO we can't move in.

The carpet is almost three weeks behind now.  I have a two week window left to get it in before we have to move our date.

Spring

The last day of Winter was a beautiful 75 degrees; the first day of Spring was a miserable 35 degrees capped off with about six inches of snow.  Our weather has been whacked all year.  This makes our fourth real snow of the year.  Sheela was supposed to work a double shift at the zoo today but when she called to say she’d be late because the roads were bad and they were switching to the train they told her to stay home.  None of the animals will be out, there will be no visitors and the full time staff can handle the chores.  So she has a bonus day.

38 Days

We have only 38 working days left until THE move.  I am no where near ready and I don’t believe anyone else is either.  I can’t get myself ready because I’m still focused on other projects that didn’t get accomplished on time.  I’m officially working nights and weekends now playing catch up.  I’ve actually never been happier.  We will get this done and it all will get done on time.

 

Plans

I planned to de-gunk Sheela's room but it was much too pretty today.  We planted flowers, trimmed hedges, adjusted the spa chemistry and igured that was good enough.

We could plan on de-gunking tomorrow but it is supposed to be even prettier.  We may go to the driving range or the park instead.  We may just kill a whole day at the zoo.

15 years

Next week marks my 15^th anniversary at work.  In honor of this celebration I’ve chosen a gift.  Sid lobbied hard for a Coleman “Roadtrip” grill, while both kids wanted either the Hatteras hammock or the Daiwa Fly Fishing Pack but I held tough and got to make my own choice.  I’ll be receiving a Fuji “Finepix” digital camera with 12 MP, 18X optical zoom, 3” LCD screen, face detection technology and image stabilization – not to mention a luggage tag engraved with my name.  It will be 2-4 weeks before it arrives and then another week or two for me to plan my own award lunch.  In the meantime Sunil has already taken possession of my other camera.

 

Live Strong

I’m messing around with a Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong.com website to track my daily food consumption, weight, mood and exercise.  It has a 45 day free trial and I’m on approximately day five.  I mostly checked it out to find out how many calories are really in the sandwiches that they bring in for lunch here 2-4 times each week.  The busier we get at work the more likely they are to bribe us with food to keep us close which is not unappreciated by any means but the same old thing over and over again gets old not to mention we all just keep getting fatter.  SO I find that my favorite of the lunch sandwiches (Panera’s Roast Beef with Asiago Cheese) runs 710 calories and is half enough food to fill me up – sometimes I eat two, sometimes I eat a cup of the Broccoli Cheese soup (230 calories) and sometimes I go straight to the dessert platter (too many fabulous options to choose just one). 

 

I am rapidly becoming addicted to the site.  So far I haven’t changed many of habits (except for that second sandwich thing) but I’m getting a feel for what I need to change and what my better options could be.  Today I started to play around with the exercise “loops”.  I put in the route Sheela and I take on our evening walks and it calculated the distance and the elevation changes (this is Texas – I didn’t know we had elevation changes).  It’s fun.

Bad pic but a great day

This is my reflection in the glass around the slender tailed meerkat's exhibit.  It is turning in to a beautiful day to be all alone at the zoo.  For the first two hours it was chilly and there was almost no one here but me.  I watched them feed Jade (the. smallest of the giraffes), the asian small clawed otters, the ducks, the harpy eagle (dead rat), Patrick (the silverback gorrillia) and the red crowned cranes.  Now I'm basking in the sun with the meerkats, eating an apple (me - not them). 

I have another hour before Sheela will be done followed by nearly an hour on the train.  She decided that riding alone is not something that she's ready for after all.  There were too many people asking for money and too many homeless people spending the night on the early train for her to be comfortable.   

Funzoids

Today is the DI Tournament.  Sheela's team named themselves the Funzoids.  They are still in the elementary school but are competing in the Middle School division because most school districts include the 6th in MS.

The presentation is Improv - more later.

Maya doesn't always hate Sheela

Training

Sheela is off at Zookeeper training today.  Tomorrow she starts her service. 

Work

I haven’t written much lately because of a combination of travel, a massive workload, an FDA audit, an MRP system crash, some home PC crashes and a serious need to blow off steam.  We’ve spent our free time eating out with the kids.  We’re in a “try something new” mode for our eating out.  Last week Sid took the kids to a German place.  This week we are looking at Greek but haven’t really finalized the details.

It may be right but I don't have to like it.

I'm sulking this evening.  My trip to Palm Springs is about to be cancelled.  Something more important has come along that we don't get to schedule and I need to stay in the office.  I know I need to be here and I know that I can more easily be replaced in CA but I really wanted to go.

It isn't just the desert in winter for what amounts to a four-day party or that I've waited 15 years to be invited to this trip or that I actually had a need to meet with some of the sales team but that I wanted to be included on the culture training and the chance to teach in front of 100+ people.  I'm really bummed.

Hanging out

The kids and I are putting their brand new rec center memberships to the test today.  Sunil convinced us that he can not practice his basketball skills outside when the net freezes; the ball gets stuck in the net.  So here we are unfortunately the basketball courts are tricked out for volleyball on Wed nights and Saturday mornings.  Those are the best two times for me to bring him up here.  We are consoling ourselves with ping pong and air hockey.

Public Transportation

I take every opportunity that I can to ride the DART trains here.  I’m not a big fan of the buses and it really never occurs to me to use them at all but the train is fun and frequently goes where I want to go.  Saturday Sunil and I took the train to the American Airlines Center to see the Globetrotters.  It honestly takes almost twice as long to ride the train as it does to drive but it’s basically simple and its fun; so we do it anyway.  I was a little steamed this time though with how difficult it is to buy the tickets.  The kiosks are entirely automated and come with pretty clear instructiosn but half of them were out of service, none of them take credit or debit cards, half wouldn’t accept bills and half wouldn’t accept coins.  I was unable to purchase roundtrip tickets for us as I didn’t have enough cash so I paid more for one way.  On the way back I had to try three different machines to be able to make the purchase.  The first one warned you that it would not make change and I had a $20 but needed less than three dollars in fares.  The second wouldn’t let me buy both my ticket and Sunil’s at the same time but it did accept my two $1 bills and produced three quarters as change.  Then I had to go to a third machine to use those 3 quarters to buy Sunil’s ticket because it was in a bill only mode.  It’s hard to be excited about it when you have to work this hard.

 

Harlem Globetrotters Pic

Well, he isn't a 'trotter but he has "The Official" Globetrotters ball and that's good enough for me.

Bonus Night

Sid and Sheela are braving the snow for the HATs Winter Campout.  Sunil is staying with a friend.  I wasn't prepared for a night alone and my peeps are all busy.  I toyed with the idea of going to a movie but nothing sounded good.  I toyed with the idea of going to the hockey game but it doesn't seem like it will be fun alone.  I settled for a steak dinner and a Sangria Swirl Margarita at a place close to home.  I'll be curled up in front of the fire with a book by 8PM.  That's good enough for me.

NFC Champions

So many years were such a disappointment that I don’t care whether or not the Saints win the Superbowl; I’m just pleased that they are getting the chance to go.  Winning would be pretty cool though….

 

Sneak shot

I took this before Sunil told me that pictures aren't allowed (his rule).  He is warming up for the first of his two games today.  In between he'll race his car in the Pinewood Derby.

Giants of the Savannah

The zoo is opening a whole new section Memorial Day Weekend.  It will be called Giants of the Savannah and will have large enclosures for a band of 10 elephants (we have only two right now), 12 giraffes (we have only three right now) and a pride of lions (our male lion passed away and the lioness has been off exhibit ever since).  Hand feeding of the giraffes will be allowed and a part of the Junior Zoo Keeper program last the kids got to start socializing the two newer giraffes by feeding them and getting them used to crowds of kids up close.  The Junior Zookeepers get to do one field trip/special event almost every week when they work.  Sometimes it’s a back lot tour of the tiger cages during their training, sometimes it will be a special talk with one of the keepers.  This program sounds so cool.

 

BTW – Sunil wants to have his birthday party at the Zoo this year.

Building Tour

We took the Operations Department and the Quality Engineers to tour the construction for the new building on Friday.  The place is huge.  We are in 70K sq.ft now and the new place will be 150K sq.ft.  The bulk of the structure is open to the “second floor” ceiling line so it is one great big room right now.  Enough of the conference room and office walls are up to get a feel for the place and it feels really nice with lots of windows and glass walls to allow light in.  I’m getting pretty excited we have just over 100 days until the move.