19 days

It's funny how you can check back on your life when you blog. It's been 19 days since I've started feeling sick. 19 days of headaches, sinus pressure, cough, scratchy throat and and blowing my nose until my head is about to explode. It feels like eternity. I do feel a little better every day but I really would like to be NOT SICK at all. I want to feel well and breathe. Here's to hoping I'll be finally fine this weekend !

Spring makes things pretty

Back to the grind

 Yes it's back to the grind. Thankfully the craziness of the past few weeks has subsided a bit. A good thing as I'm still not doing too well. At least I'm able to think and use my brain again. 

Not to brag but I'm good at what I do.  I like the investigation, the detective work to figure out what went wrong. I was successful with my digging today. There is a great feeling when you put you finger on the source of a problem. I cannot always bring the solution my work puts the solution that much closer. Somehow this little bit of satisfaction makes up for a lot of the frustrations I have to deal in my job and work environment. 

In busy bee mode

This weekend was a whirlwind. I have been in busy bee mode the whole time even though I'm still sick, coughing and blowing my nose every other minute. So many things to do around the house!!.  Patch a hole here, paint a wall there, the garden needing more attention, a stitch here, a bit of baking, the family, in short a lot of life. 

My husband's parents were in town for a visit starting Thursday night so we took friday off to do more things together. No skipping school for the young lady so we shipped her on the school bus in the morning but we all went to  the Baltimore Zoo in the afternoon (our little princess loved it .. she got to pet the farm animals.. very cool). After the zoo, we headed to Towson for a family dinner with Joan and John. Great steak! After break fast on saturday, we went to the school's spring Carnival which was a lot of fun despite the so-so weather. In the evening, we barbecued at home with a friend visiting from Syracuse NY. It was a lot of fun even though I was totally out of juice (hell I even crashed for a nap while my daughter and I were watching a movie). Our friend brought his spanking new iPad and we all got to play with it, daughter included. She actually caught up in no time... I was shocked! And proud!

This morning I baked french toast for the first time and it turned out OK although it kinda started badly... a good save (hubby gives it a 7/10 in his words it has potential). Then the in-laws left to return home and we had to catch up with other mundane tasks like, laundry, dishes and another "gratifying" household chores.

This afternoon a trip to home depot, then the hubby and I fixed up the flower beds in the backyard and planted impatients and marygolds. I also got herbs (parsley, chives and of course basil) and cherry tomatoes in a planter in the sunnier front yard. I guess i should take some pictures of all the pretty flowers in the front: the creeping flox  is a purple explosion, and the azalea bushes looks fantastic in pink and white. I wish it were spring year round!!

Not too bad

I have to say things are not too bad today. The workload is not quite as crazy this week, the whole team is grateful for the change of pace. I'm slowly but surely recovering from this nasty bug that took me down last week, only a bit of a cough lingering at this point. I should be back in the swing of thing for the weekend. 

Speaking of weekend, my husbands parents are visiting from upstate NY. They will arrive on Thursday night so we took Friday off so we can all spend some time together. We just have to figure out what but the weather forecast is rather promising so it's probably going to be outside. On Saturday, friends will be joining us for hopefully an outdoor barbecue, it may be a bit chilly to enjoy dinner outside still. 

My front yard is looking prettier every day: blooms everywhere, even pretty strawberries flowers, promise of future yumminess. It's good for the mood. Looking forward to the grilling parties with family and friends!! The summer calendar is filling up too: my birthday and the hubby's are around the corner, mother's day, a grill party in VA in June ... I love spring and summer

Where did it go?

Where did it go ? The weekend is just a blur. So many things done. And yet still so many things to do. It is true when you own a home it never ends. When we bought our house we knew full well it was a fixer-upper and there would have to be sweat equity  invested. After 6 years we have come full circle. We are now looking back at the rooms we fixed up first when we moved in. We the experience gathered over the past years we know how to do better, and the itch is there. 

There is the slight issue of finishing the second half of our basement family room. We have been clearing clutter around the house over the winter and the last of it is about to find a new home. Now it's time to finish planning and make it happen. And then there are the 'side' projects: paint the second floor landing the same color as the stairwell, repaint the trim and doors throughout the house, stain and seal the basement stairs, replace the flooring in the entrance hall, fix the deck's handrail, stain the terrace's handrail, finish patching the hole in the bathroom's ceiling left by replacing the fan... the list goes on and on and on. That looks like there will be a lot of busy weekends this summer.

Hiatus

Not much activity on this blog all week. The main culprit would be fighting off a nasty bug that hit me Monday, kept me in bed 2 days and left me without much energy the rest of the week. Sinuses inflamed,  nose raw, fever and chills, headache and a lingering cough. Not fun. It's now Saturday and I'm not yet 100% back. 

Work has been hectic again this week. The overload created a serious delay in case handling and this is rubbing me the wrong way. Then came the aggravation of having to justify technical decisions to non-technician. After 7 years of proving my skills, I would expect a bit more credit for my experience and track record. 

On the home front some positive: finally the stairwell is freshly repainted. The last of the beige is gone. Now a very restful barely blue is showing off some of my paintings. Oh and no more flat finish... with little people in the household you learn the value of eggshell finish: you can wash off crayon, peanut butter paw prints and other little disasters. The basement stairs are also sanded and ready to be refinished: a project for a weekend in the near future. 

Mommy pride is also maxed out. My little princess is making great strides at school. She did not have a set back after spring break like she did when the snow storms interrupted school for 2 full weeks. She interacts  better with the teachers and her classmates and is especially empathic with them. Several times, her teacher reported that she always tries to comfort the other kids when they are upset or not well. And now using not only hugs but also words of comfort. Love her to death !!

In the craft department, I'm putting finishing touches to 2 projects:

A crayon/ coloring pad carry case for my daughter 

And the lap quilt I started last month. Last step : the binding.

Guilty !

Guilty, the Cuisinart chopping board that assassinated my dishwasher. How? well that's easy. Cusinart likes to put fancy logos on their products. 

Here are the specs as collected on Amazon.com

---

Cuisinart Basic Grooved Poly Cutting Board 8-by-11-Inch

Product Features Non-absorbent Curved groove to catch juices Will not dull knives Dishwasher safe

---

Product Details Product Dimensions: 8 x 11 x 0.4 inches Shipping Weight: 2 pounds Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S. ASIN: B0002TU3MY Item model number: CCB1001PWH

Note the part where it says it's dishwasher safe. Apparently the board will be fine in your dishwasher.. but your dishwasher will not. This is a picture of my cutting board. Note the logo is missing? Guess where it went ? Yep that's right... in the guts of my dishwasher. How is still a mystery, but the Sears repair guy replaced the motor that was toast ($260 parts and labor) and this is what we found INSIDE the motor:

Yep that's right .. the very chewed up Cuisinart logo from my chopping board. Not happy with Cuisinart right now. Murpf!!

Headache

This morning I woke up with a splitting headache. Once standing up it was even worse. Advil not helping on this one. Great! Forgot to mention, this weekend I am on call too. And the phone was ringing and ringing. It took all my self control not to explode the third time around. Thank god, my boss answered to my call for help and I was able to lay down for a couple of hours until my head stopped pounding. Finally around 4pm, I was feeling human again. So far no further calls.

I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on the weekly chores and the evening cuddling with my little girl who fell asleep in my arms, sucking her thumb. She barely opened an eye when I tucked her in her bed. After that I continued tidying up the house but found a bit of time to advance on one of my quilts. I was on a roll and finished half of it before running out of thread. In my crystal ball I see a trip to JoAnn's. 

It keeps going

Back to ranting about work. The past few weeks, it's been quite overwhelming. This feeling of being in a boat with a leak and just barely being able to scoop out enough water to stay afloat. In the end you are just exhausted and drained of energy and you don't feel like you have made any progress. Depressing.  

Being down one team mate permanently is not helping. Last friday was Raj's last day and his position will not be filled. Budget constraints. In addition, one of our team member was in training this week, and our manager has been traveling customer's site. He took off Tuesday and will be back this weekend.  Instructions are to take cases by priority and tell people being pushy about not so urgent stuff to take a ticket and wait for their turn. Umm.. I hope I can pull it off until tomorrow 5pm. 

On the home front, some frustration too. Dishwasher pump died last weekend. The replacement part won;t be in until Monday. Thank goodness for paper plates and cups. Not very environmentally friendly but definitely keeping sanity in the household.

More about the fabrics

These are some of the fabrics for the Japanese wall hanging. I'm hoping to get started in a couple of weeks.

Because before I get started on something new, I really need to finish this one. The top is finished, I still have to piece the back and quilt. I plan on keeping it simple so it should be done pretty quickly as long as I'm able to make some time to sew... Always an interesting challenge.

Pretty fabrics

These are the fabrics I bought this weekend at a quilt store in Pennsylvania. I have not decided what to do with the bottom four but the top 2 I chose with special projects in mind. The black one for a 'window' quilt with a Japanese 24" panel, the green is for a 'liberated' quilt project that is still brewing in my mind. I have dyed fabric for it and the theme is "planets in a far away galaxy'.

Unfortunately, there are not enough hours in the day to allow me to do as much as I would like to in the crafting department. Full time job, hubby, kid, cats, a whole household to keep up with and a 30-year old house that has been sucking a lot of energy to get refurbished to our taste. Oh and no maid service to help with the cleaning/tidying...

Hop hop, busy bunny weekend

We had a good time yesterday even though we were not able to visit Gram Betty as she had some health concerns that forced her into the hospital for a couple of hours. First stop was the Wilbur's chocolate factory, where two giant bunnies greeted us with Jelly Beans.  After secretly getting a chocolate bunny for the young lady and some chocolate drops and buttons we had lunch at a small family restaurant nearby. Then returned to the chocolate store where I bought this great chocolate body butter... yumm!!! Then we drove through Amish land and stopped at a couple of local stores were we got fantastic goodies. I also could not resist getting some fabrics at once of the quilt shops but I kept it reasonable. As we were heading home, my hubby also got his moment of fun. We stopped at the Strasburg Historic Train station just in time to see the train leave the station. Father and daughter truly fascinated by the show. After that we took the scenic route back to York and headed back to MD. My baby crashed halfway. We dropped her off at John and Joan's (hubby's uncle and aunt that are the third grand father and grand mother to our little one) so we could have a date evening. Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and a movie. Hubby and I agree that we should have date nights more often. Let's face it, last one was early December!!

This morning, no little visitor at 7am. We were able to take it easy before heading back to Joan ad John's where we had a truly fantastic day! We could not have asked for better weather: sunshine, warm and dry. That made for a sweet easter egg hunt and a great outdoor family brunch. Lots of laughs, lots of chocolate, good times ! My princess was so pretty in her summer dress and so happy when she found the eggs left by the Easter bunny. We all had a great time watching her playing in the yard. Is there anything better than spending time with people you love ?? 

Bunny time !!

The week ended in the same hectic rush it had started. Quick, quick cram everything possible in the hours of a day. Work hours whizzed by. One last script, two imports and three hotfixes and it's already 4pm. Time to say goodbye to Raj, one member of my team that has decided to check whether the grass is greener at another employer's. We will all miss him! 

Back home another great surprise: the dishwasher called it quits on us. So there we are, friday evening, a mountain of dishes waiting, Easter last preparations to tackle, and the usual pre-weekend grind. My hubby did manage to get  an appointment with the Sears repair guy for Monday. In the meantime, we will go with paper plates. I'm not feeling the hand washing. At all. Especially after tackling that mountain of dishes this evening. Hubby took pity on my and ordered pizza. 

After dinner and tucking in my princess, it was time to hop into bunny mode. Actually panic mode for a few minutes when I couldn't figure out where the Easter candy was stashed away. My fault for forgetting I had put it out of the hubby's sight so he would not get tempted. It is late but the laundry is done, the pile of dirty dishes turned into a pile of clean dishes, the candy stash has been uncovered. I decorated a basket for the loot on Sunday. I also found time to make (yes make with my sewing machine embroidery program) and put labels in my daughter's summer clothes ( ah the added joys of school for mommies). Sheeh my head is spinning!!

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Lancaster PA, visiting Gram Betty, the greatest granny on this side of the Atlantic for sure. Then hubby and I are going on a date (dinner and a movie sans child) as an advanced celebration of our 8th anniversary next week. Sunday, we'll be hunting eggs in Aunt Joan's backyard and having brunch with the family. Somewhere in the busy schedule, we will have to squeeze a side trip to the grocery store. Some sleep would be nice too. Time to head to bed!!!

It goes on and on and on

Ok, I can't stand being bored at work. I have this physical need to be busy. But there is busy and BUSY.  Over the past 3 weeks it's just been one disaster after the other. The work flow is so intense there aren't enough hours in the day just to keep up with the emergencies. Note that emergency is also a matter of perception. Something that you would think is mundane will be of extreme significance in someone else's eyes. And there is of course the "diva" factor. Some clients are like jet-setters: they want everything, right there, right now, regardless of what it takes to deliver. And will stop at nothing to get it. In those situation, it becomes incredibly complicated to handle the workload with the right priority on top. And then there is the add-on stress of your escalation point pushing you under the bus because they don't want to deal with the situation head on with the customer. Sometimes it makes you itch for some serious bitchslapping! It's itching bad lately. Not something you can really do. Not professional. Not politically correct. At least talking about it makes the pressure go down.