02/08/2011

The side streets in our town are still a mess from last weeks snowstorm/blizzard.  The main roads are in pretty good shape, thankfully.  It’s supposed to start snowing by 6:00 this evening and continue through tomorrow with an accumulation of seven + inches.  BLERGH!   My boss told me this morning that she has purposely not scheduled anything for tomorrow morning because she feels we probably won’t be at work.  That part I’m excited about, but at the same time….I hate having my schedule disrupted.

Gracie learned how to chase snowballs yesterday, it was hilarious.  I went outside with them and Mike since it wasn’t horrible cold and I actually felt pretty decent.  I didn’t have my gloves on, but I still made some loosely packed snowballs and I’d throw them up in the air.  Gracie would catch them, but they were soft and would explode all over her nose.  She’d snuffle and snort around and then wait for the next one, it was so much fun!  My hands finally got too cold and so Mike took over snowball making duty so she could play more.  The snow is packed down enough that little Irwin can walk on top of it most of the time now too.  He doesn’t mind it as much, but his feet still get cold fairly quickly.  They both have boots, but they also both refuse to wear them.  Gracie kicks them off and Irwin just stands still looking mad and sad at the same time.  So I gave up trying to get them to wear them.

I went to the grocery store with Mike on Sunday, first time I’ve gotten out since before I got sick.  It still about did me in, but I made it and was very happy about that.  I’ve had two people this week tell me I’m starting to look more like myself too so I know there is improvement.  Mike is just happy I’m eating again.

My email is filling up, I’ve got too much piddly crap to take care of this afternoon. 

I found out this morning that one of my very favorite people in this company is retiring.  I was invited to his retirement reception and so I’ll be sure I’m there.  Makes me sad, he is a big boss that I’ve worked with the entire time I’ve been here.  Even when I was a contractor, he always treated me as part of our group. 

I am going to be so happy when I no longer sound like a frog.  My voice does well for just a little bit, but then I start croaking again.  Grrrrr 

I love being able to delegate.  Jeri is still new enough that she waits for instructions from me and so I’ve been mean and given her a couple of sticky issues to take care of.  They aer things she needs to know how to do and I still walk her through every step, but she is doing most of it.  She even tells people that she reports to me even though that’s not true.  But, she is still doing an amazing job and I’m very happy that my boss let me decide who to hire for that position.

Oh, I got my end of year review and was rated as high as is possible.  That comes with a nice raise and an increase in our yearly bonus so I was thrilled.  Our bonus will be announced next week and paid out the following week.  This time of year is always a good checkbook time.  We get our bonuses, stock returns, and our tax returns all within about a month of each other.  We are actually getting a State refund this year, first time since Mike and I have been married.  We’re getting a Federal one too so I’m very happy about that.  I’m not entirely sure what we’re going to get with the money, but it’ll be something for the house.  We might look at getting guttering installed, we do need that.  I don’t think that’s horribly expensive either, so that might be a good idea.

Mike bought me a Nook Color eReader a couple of weeks ago.  I love it!  I’ve downloaded two books so far, but I only read one at a time, so that’s all I need right now.  Once I finish those, I will look for another one.  Mike unlocked it for me and now it’s very similar to an iPad.  I have all kinds of aps on it and it has WiFi access as well.  I can access anything on it that I can on my netbook and iPhone.  So much fun!

Ok, lunch time so I better get moving.  Have a great day and take care of yourselves!