Friday, June 30, 2006

friday.

hey!

it's friday and it's after 5 p.m.

happy weekend kiddos.

and it's a long one too.

how nice is that?

very nice, I think.

have a good 'un and remember to be careful when you're playing with the fire crackers this weekend.

it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!!

Thursday, June 29, 2006

that good kind of tired

Over the past few weeks, as I've mentioned here, I've been spending more and more of my work day away from my desk. We've had professional development days, skills training and today, a day-long meeting with folks who do the same kind of work we do at different institutions. Part of it has been difficult. The work still needs to get done so it feels like I've been spinning in circles, trying to keep all the balls in the air, so to speak. Running around at top speed to make up for the "lost days" can be a little exhausting but it's been worthwhile for me.

Some of the days away have been more rewarding than others. Today was definitely one of the good ones. Similar to the workshop I attended last week, I came away from the day feeling good. Lots of great ideas were shared today and it was comforting to hear that many of the challenges we face every day are not unique to our group. Of course, right now, I'm completely pooped, utterly exhausted. I'm really wishing that I had booked tomorrow off and made a nice, four-day weekend of it but I didn't. Oh well, I think that almost everyone else did so it should be nice and quiet in the office. If all goes well, I won't have to bring anything home with tomorrow too!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

export control - keep left

don't you just love it when you expect to not have a great time but you actually do?

I had a feeling that I'd have an "okay" time at the thing I had to go to but I ended up having a really nice evening. I laughed, a lot, which is always a good sign.

Having said that, it's now officially way past my bedtime and I need to be up at the usual time tomorrow.

it's totally true when folks say that time flies when you're having fun!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

cats and dogs

it's been raining off and on all day today. at times, it's been absolutely pouring. the weather has been so unstable that Mark had a migraine last night. he developed another one late this morning. one of the worst things about it is that once the actual headache has passed, there is a groggy feeling that sticks around from all of the drugs you have to take to get rid of the stupid thing. no fun huh?

tomorrow should be interesting. our team at work is getting together with teams from other universities who do the same (or similar) stuff that we do. after work, we're meeting up with the out of towners for a reception and then dinner. thursday, we'll spend together as a group, sharing ideas and what not.

I'm not totally thrilled at the idea of being out of the office for a whole day, given that I was off last week for a day and missed a day and a half the week before. I suppose it'll all be okay in the long run, but I'm still not feeling very organized or "on top of things" in my new job yet.

Monday, June 26, 2006

skydeck


skydeck
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
seeing the word "skydeck" just reminded me of "skyhook coathanger" by nfa.

word associations can be strange. strange word associations can make you smile though. I have happy memories of nfa.

and it's monday again, although, technically, the biggest part of monday is over. I'll be heading off to bed soon but I think a short game of word association might be order: you can play too if you'd like, click here to do it.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

laundry basket blues

our laundry breeds in the basket.

I am absolutely convinced of it.

I cannot figure out for the life of me how two people can create as much dirty laundry as we did this week.

oh well, I shouldn't complain. At least I only have to travel down the stairs to look after it and not to the laundromat down the street...and all that up and down of the stairs must be good "cardio," right?

Saturday, June 24, 2006

home


wolfe islander iii
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
wow, we had a great day. we've not been home too long but the car is at least unloaded.

the ferry trip to the states was so pleasant. what we spent on the ferry we more than saved on gas, not to mention the added bonus of being on the water instead of on the highway.

I've posted about half of my photos on flickr, the rest I'll post tomorrow.

on the hoist


on the hoist
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
yesterday was a lot of fun.

one of things we did was get our car checked out. for about a week now, it had been making a strange / alarming grinding noise.

fortunately, it was an easy fix type of thing. some clamp was loose and the lovely chaps at speedy fixed it for free. you have to love free. although, mark mentioned that they should probably do that kind of thing, given how much money we have spent there this year. i suppose he's right but getting a little freebie once in a while is always nice.

today, we're taking the newly tightened car on the road. we're going to take the ferry from wolfe island over to cape vincent and do a little cross border shopping, we'll maybe even have some cross border lunch. it looks like a gorgeous day out there so it should a lovely trip.

have i mentioned how much i love sunny long weekends??

Friday, June 23, 2006

change of plans

this morning, we got up at our normal, early time. even though I'm off today, I like staying on routine. I took Mark to work, came home, and did some work of my own. it's amazing how much more I can accomplish, sitting at the kitchen table with a big mug of coffee than I can at the office. I guess it's the lack of phones.

Mark came home for breakfast a little while ago and I convinced him to play hooky today. he's going to quit early and we're going to go do errands together. I'm happy about this, I think he is too. it's always easier and more fun when I can run around town with him, than it is if I do it on my own.

so, yay, today's shaping up differently than I'd planned but that's definitely not a bad thing at all!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

dangerous quotations


phytotron
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
out of context, folks overhearing Mark and I say, in unison "What are you gonna make me do? Whack a guy? Off a guy? Whack off a guy? 'Cause I'm married..." probably seems odd. It may seem particularly odd, I would guess, if you've never seen the Family Guy.

It's now officially the weekend for me. It's been a long week, what with working on Sunday and all. I know that if I had to do that on a regular basis, I'd get used to it but when it's a once a while thing, it's more difficult for me to adjust. Tomorrow I have many plans. There is a list I'm working on, a to-do list. It's getting quite long but it's good. Recently, we've both been busy with work and by the time we get home at night, we just want to collapse. This is nice and relaxing but it doesn't get the errands done! I would like to get the lion's share of my "chores" out of the way tomorrow. That would allow Mark and I to have a really quiet, chilled weekend. We can both use one, I'm looking forward to it.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

love


monday night dinner - june 19
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
I know that you're not supposed to love things but I really have strong feelings about our house....

a few things I love about our house:

- it has windows on all four sides
- right now, there is a beautiful breeze blowing through it
- we have room for fish tanks here
- I feel safe here

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

recharged!

Recently, I've spent a few days away from the office. It's still considered work but one day, Monday, was a 1/2 day gathering at our Executive Director's house. It was basically a celebration of our department's accomplishments over the past year. It was fun and a very nice thing to do but I couldn't help but think, as I was driving out to her beautiful home in the country, about all of the stuff I had piled up on my desk.

Another, last Wednesday, I spent the entire day away from my desk, with everyone in our organization (I think around 120 people), being "enhanced." Again, the material covered in the day was interesting but not really relevant to my every day work so again, my thoughts kept wandering back to the office...

Friday afternoon, I attended an event I'd worked on. Sunday, we worked all day, in Gatineau. Preparing for these events was what had distracted me last week.

Today was different!

Today, I had an opportunity to attend a conference for admin support types. It was a one-day thing but could have easily been stretched to two. The nice thing about this particular day was how good I feel right now.

The speaker for the day was a really nifty lady named Colleen Clarke. The big focus of the day was on communication in the workplace. We discussed the use of language in our every day work and how it can influence the outcome of a given situation. Talk about powerful.

Often times, days like this are full of stuff that you already knew and someone is just re-wording it for you. This felt like more than that. She had working in groups on different exercises and scenerios. Not only did this help to make the material stick, it gave us all an opportunity to meet folks from all across campus.

Of course, right now, my head is swimming a bit. It was a lot of information to take in and many new faces to try and remember. I'm also still a little tired from Sunday. I'm really glad that I had an opportunity to participate in this day though. I didn't think about what I'd left behind at all. I was able to concentrate on these sessions. I think I learned a lot today. Whether or not I'll be able to implement what I've learned is another thing but it was a really great experience whatever happens!

Monday, June 19, 2006

mellowed monday


hotter than blue blazes!
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
most of us at work today were dragging our butts a bit. yesterday was tiring, it would have been a much different day without the heat.

I didn't sleep well last night. I fell asleep quite quickly but then was restless. I wasn't able to get comfortable and I tossed around a fair bit.

I talked to my mum tonight. she and my dad are in regina right now. they are on the way home. this morning they left Calgary. I talked to my dad for a bit. they sound happy, like they're having fun.

fun is good, laughing is good too. if you can have a little bit of fun every day, and try to squeeze some laughter in once in a while, you can keep most things in perspective.

in my opinion, perpsective is important.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

outside


kingsmere
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
we just got home. I was really glad to get home too, our house was lovely, dark and cool, when we walked in the door.

we had a mini-heat wave today. I find that when you all of a sudden have a really hot day, it's tough to adjust. I worked today, at an event out of town. It was a really lovely event and I think that folks enjoyed themselves. I was lucky to be working outside, under a shaded tree, in a breezy area. I still got a little overheated though. As the day wound down, I figured that it must be the sun screen. My skin wasn't breathing so well with all of the spf 30 I'd put on.

We had an early start this morning and the time went very quickly. I drove up with my co-workers and we arrived around 11 a.m. Mark drove up by himself, and picked up Pat & Rebecca in Ottawa. I was really glad that they were able to come to the party even though I didn't really have a chance for a proper visit with them.

After the event finished, we had planned to go out for dinner but we ended up just stopping at a store to load up on cold drinks before hitting the highway. I'm glad it worked out like that because it was a little too warm to eat. Now that we've both cooled off a bit, I think we can have the dinner discussion and figure that out. I'm still a little surprised that the temperature hit 34 today but I guess that's to be expected now that we're so close to it being summer, "officially."

Saturday, June 17, 2006

rain

very early this morning, or quite late last night (depending upon how you see such things) the rain woke me up.

the sound of it filled the bedroom, it was so loud you could almost feel the weight of the water. it went on for a while, I don't know how long exactly but it seemed like I kept falling back to sleep and then waking up again to the sound of the water.

the really nice part of it was that it wasn't coming in the window so I could lay in bed and listen to this huge storm outside and not have to shut it out completely.

it's still raining now, although you can't hear it. the sun's trying to burn through too, which is odd, as it's still raining.

today's my only day off this week. I have a lot to do around the house before tomorrow. if the rain keeps up, that will keep me in the house, doing my chores, getting stuff done.

if the sun comes out, I could be tempted outside, into the garden, maybe to putter, maybe to sip coffee and read magazines.

if I'm lucky, the sun will come out in full force, later on today, after my chores are done.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

word of the day


phytotron - big lights
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
today's word is phytotron

i had an opportunity today to tour the biosciences complex. it was very cool. the phytotron is a cool place although it was very warm in some spots.

that's to be expected I suppose, on a sunny day, in a glass room, on the top of a building.

neat stuff!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

caged equipment


caged equipment
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
for a moment, just now, I thought that it was Wednesday. It's not, not quite yet anyway. For now, it's still Tuesday.

I've been having very intense, realistic and weird dreams the past few nights. The kind that you have to shake your head a little, when you first wake up, because you're not entirely sure that what you dreamed about didn't really happen.

I like dreams like that. They're rare but they're interesting.

Monday, June 12, 2006

starting all over again


backyard - after
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
so it's monday, again.

and I'm up, before the birds.

I can hear the birds waking up, just after I do in the mornings. It's kind of cool actually.

last week was busy, this week will be more so.

I will be out of the office for social/pd type events for 1.5 days this week. that is a lot of time to be away from my desk. I think that there are lots of meetings in between that. like I said, busy.

but, as the lovely gloria gaynor once sang, "i will survive." of course I will, it's only work, right!?

Sunday, June 11, 2006

lazy

I'm not going to do anything today.

Actually, I'll do laundry, but that's it!

I'm not feeling 100% today, I haven't for a few days actually but it's finally caught up with me.

Hopefully, a nice, lazy sunday will put me right again.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

thank you for not smoking


thousand islands charity casino
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
Ontario went "smoke free" last week. Quebec too. New York State has been that way for a while. It's nice to live in this part of the world!

To celebrate the elimination of smoke from all public places, Mark and I took an early morning trip down to Gan, to the casino. What a diference smoke makes, or rather the lack of it.

When we walked in, shortly after 9 a.m., it was oddly quiet. You could still hear the piped in sounds of the machines, all of that cha-chinging...but there were relatively few people. It was really nice. Instead of being restricted to the non-smoking section of the place, to be able to wander freely and hang out in any part of the room.

Of course, when we decided to leave, we had to walk through a cloud of smoke by the front door. Given how chilly it was this morning, not to mention windy, it wasn't too bad. Overall, it was really nice to spend a couple of hours in the place and not walk out smelling like an ashtray.

Friday, June 09, 2006

happy weekend to all...


1994 Fall CFRC Radio Club Office
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
...and to all a good night.

it's been a very long week. I'm off to bed kiddos.

have a good'un!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

lack of traffic


kingston waterfront
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
I guess K-town's "rush hour" doesn't officially start until much later in the morning.

I was surprised by the lack of traffic on the causeway this morning. I was working at an event at the Holiday Inn earlier today and we had a bird's eye view of the waterfront. It was really lovely actually, more than made up for the fact that we had to be at the hotel by 6:30 a.m.

Fortunately, this only happens once every quarter. By the end of the day we were all dragging our bums a fair bit.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

new gate


new gate
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
Slowly, the work we're having on the house is getting done.

Our "handy guy" was here today, working on replacing our gate. It looks really nice and makes me excited about our new deck. That project most likely won't start until the fall but it'll be really nice when it does get here. We also need to have some work done on our front steps but none of these things are urgent, they'll happen when they happen.

Even though I have to be up quite early most mornings, I don't actually have to leave the house until shortly after 7 a.m. It's nice, I can get some stuff done around the house before work, and really ease into the day. Tomorrow though, I have be out of the house and at work by 6:30 a.m. Ugh. Oh well, the reason for the early hour is fine, it's just the thought of being out and about so early...I am feeling sleepy just from thinking about it...

Monday, June 05, 2006

weekend update


gift time
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
Or rather, Monday update...about the weekend. I'm confused.

I'm also tired.

It was a good weekend, busy but good.

I feel really happy about finally getting my office sorted out. That's been a long time coming. I still have a few boxes on the floor and in the closet but once I get a new filing cabinet (and a new desk) all of that will be gone and I'll be totally organized. I am still trying to decide on what colour to paint the office. Now that there are pictures up on the walls, it feels less necessary (although it's still very necessary - it's not urgent at all).

On Saturday night, we celebrated mum & dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary. Pat came down for the weekend but Joe wasn't able to join us. As he's now confined to a wheelchair, and he's still pretty weak, it's not the easiest thing to organize and truly, he has no interest in that sort of thing right now.

I'm pretty sure that we really surprised them with our gift. The four of us went together and bought them an digital camera. All through dinner, before we gave it to them, they kept talking about how they were going to look into getting one. We were all inwardly smiling about that.

Pat stayed at our place on Saturday night. We had originally intended to go see a friend play a show but we were all too pooped by the time we got home from the restaurant. We still stayed up kind of late (well, late for us anyway) visiting but it was a lot of fun.

The next couple of weeks are quite busy for me at work. It's odd too because I never imagined that June would be so nuts but it's shaping up that way. Hopefully, before the end of the month, I'll have some time to finish getting organized. As I'm still doing parts of my old job (3 months into my new one), I haven't had a lot of time to sort through things. I have a few boxes of "stuff" that need looking at. I know that I say this all of the time but...it's not that I'm wishing the time away but I am looking forward to the end of the month when I should have a little bit of breathing room.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

happy anniversary


mum and dad
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
it was 40 years ago today...

that my mum and dad got married, at Saint Francis de Sales Church, in Smiths Falls.

Happy Anniversary mum & dad, here's to 40 more!!

Friday, June 02, 2006

tgib


the beer store
Originally uploaded by Julep67.
it's friday, yay!

we're celebrating this weekend, double yay!!

my mum and dad will be married 40 years this weekend. I know that something like this is practically unheard of these days but it's true. I am the product of an actual functional family, go figure, right?

pat's coming into town and we're going to be having a big family dinner at a fancy restaurant tomorrow night. I'm sure that there will be lots of laughs and at least a couple of surprises.

yay for surprises and for reasons to celebrate!!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

silly but true

we have this new channel, well we just realized that we have it today. it's got a bunch of goofy old sitcoms on it, including Ned and Stacey and Newsradio. Is it wrong to be happy about something like this?