Friday, February 16, 2007

iHubby wants a name change

I've been referring to the Love of my Life as iHubby. Turns out he ain't so crazy about that. So, we need a new name for him. I was thinking of The Teacher but I'm looking for ideas. He's probably reading this sentence and thinking "hey, 'Love of My Life' works for me - LOML."

Yeah, it's this weird sense of trying to maintain some sense of anonymity in a very non-anonymous world. It makes me happy whether it works or not.

Coming Up For Air

Life at work...no, let's call that work at work. Work at work has been very busy since Feb 1 and I've been putting in some very long days. If I got paid for overtime I'd be pretty wealthy this week. Alas, I'm salaried. The weekdays look like this:

Work
Come home, eat dinner (maybe)
Do Homework
Sleep
Work
Come home, do homework
Sleep
etc etc etc...

...and the weekends look like this:

Sleep a few hours.
Do homework.
Sleep a few more hours.
Do homework.
Work.
Sleep some more.
Do homework. Think about knitting.
Work - oh crap, it's due Monday!
Sleep, dream about knitting.

...since February1. I think, finally, it's all settled down. What exactly does that mean? Our team doubled. After the MBNA merger project activity wound down last month, a bunch of people were given notice. I don't know how many but there were a lot. It happens. This is corpirate America and it was a merger. Everyone knew it was coming. At the same time, the SCM team (that's us, software configuration management) needed five new associates. We hired out of the folks let go five people on January 31 and since then have spent every day training, briefing, refining presentations, running mock boards...really, this wouldn't all be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that I and one of my peers are launching two brand new configuration governance review boards...and some of these new people are going to run them! I don't think I've ever done anything like this so fast and furiously in my professional life. And all these little "gotcha's" kept coming up at the last minute. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever worked with a group of people with so much professionalism and elegance. We achieved so much. We lucked into a situation, hired terrific talent, and now we're pretty much ready to go for our governance board launch next week. I can't quite believe we chose the day after a holiday, but at least it's a minor holiday.

Two months ago I set aside today as a vacation day so I could take advantage of a four day weekend and spent the last few days making sure that there were absolutely no loose ends. Well, turned out there were a few and I answered email for a couple of hours this morning and made sure a few reports made it to their final destination, but all in all I think we (Karen, Janet, Teresa, Steve, Dal, and I) will all have a relaxing weekend with very little to worry about.

I feel like I've finally come up for air.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

One Down, Two to Go

Despite the fact that today is Superbowl Sunday, that title is in reference to the last three sessions I have until graduation. So. First session DONE DONE DONE DONE. I'm so happy. I slept in. I knitted in bed. I surfed a dippy website. I checked email and I even posted a comment to my little sister's blog - without feeling guilty that I should be doing homework haha. We have a week off, then it's into a math class, which, by the looks of the workbook, should be ok. I'm actually excited. Most of what I see in there I've encountered either in knitting, photography, or business. A little algebra, a little trig, a little statistics and probability which I had to bone up on several years ago anyway...and I have the iHubby, Mr. Math.

It's cold and drafty today, although blue skies and sunny! I'm cuddled up with the beautiful scarf/shawl Mom gave me for Christmas. It's a hot chocolate day, a day for me. It's a day to hang out with iHubby. We may venture up to Yorktown later this afternoon to lend his LegoRobotics kit to a teacher up there. It's only about forty minutes away, and I'm pretty sure I can talk him into dinner at Nick's Riverwalk Restaurant. That's like going from Silverdale to Port Orchard. Or is my memory failing already?

Anyway, iHubby is down in the kitchen singing "I Feel Pretty" and making turkey Manwich. It's warmer in the kitchen than up here, so off I go!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Avoiding Homework

Today in Collinsland I am avoiding homework. I have two papers to write, and a discussion board response to post, and I just can't bring myself to do them!! I'd rather do just about anything than homework right now. So far I've: read Mom's blog, commented Mom's blog, fixed the commenting on my blog (I think), looked at knitting patterns, read other peoples comments on Mom's blog, napped, had dinner, painted my fingernails, cleaned up my computer desktop and changed it's wallpaper...all in all I've been farting around for two hours. And now I'm blogging.

PROCRASTINATING.

I have this book: "Break the Procrastination Habit NOW." I've finished one chapter. Lawrence, my Study Buddy (he's a stuffed dragon) isn't any help at all. Even my solar RadioShack calculator is more interesting than doing homework right now and it doesn't even do tricks. And isn't half as cute as Lawrence. But I really gotta because tomorrow is the last day and these things have to be turned in.

HAHAHAHAHA!