Today's Work View

Today the high was about 17 degrees with wind chills around zero.  We keep our house at about 64 degrees.  Which makes the basement about 58 degrees where our office is. My hands kept getting too cold to type so Jason and I decided to work from the laptops upstairs instead.  There we could settle into our comfy recliners with two blankets, our laptops and a hot mug of tea to boot - oh, and this was the general scenery from our stand-point.  I don't think they really understood what we were doing.  LOL!

Work, Work and More Work

Wow, it's been a busy week.  Work has been hectic, stressful and crazy for the last week with no end in sight.  I'm reaching major deadlines for my day job and for my side business and it's really keeping me on my toes.  We've gone into mandatory overtime for the next two months for a project implementation at work  and I'm struggling to catch up with another deadline for one of the Mesker side business projects.  On top of that I have two agency visits this week to Eastern Kentucky, which means another over night trip (had one the week before last, also).  But at least it should be interesting - it's a part of the state I've never been to before and I plan to take my camera with me for some sight seeing opportunities!

Luckily we got to go hang out with some good friends last night.  It's amazing how a few hours with good company can de-stress the body!  I love my friends!

On a side note, we just launched another blog project this week...sort of a pet project (no pun intended!) call PetResearch.net.  This is a joint effort between Jason and I to publish some of the research we've done over the many years each of us have had animals and pets.  It will range anywhere from the average household of dogs and cats and span out to pocket pets (rats, mice, gerbils, etc) and also going into wildlife rehabilitation and capture and release tips.  It's still work, but it's a break from the everyday work that both of us do, to an extent, in that we really have a passion for it and enjoy it.

And on that note...it's back to work for me!

B.Dog Development Launches New Site Design

I was finally able to complete and launch the new and improved B.Dog Development site for my web design/development company (aka job #2). The original site was one that was sort of thrown together quickly and sort of swept under the rug and ignored. Like the old saying goes..."the shoemaker's kids go without shoes".

Check it out, tell all your friends... ;)
http://www.bdogdev.com

Almost Vacation Time!

Can you tell I'm looking forward to vacation? I think my brain is already halfway there. It's been a hell of a week. Work has been crazy, both at my "real" job (Job 1) as well as my "side" job (Job 2). I think I've put in about 50 hours so far this week in a matter of three days...yes, I need my vacation. I just have to get through 8 hours of training at Job 1 today and do some finishing touches and wrap-ups on Job 2 stuff once I get home and I'll be good to go.

Friday is only a half day at Job 1 and I go straight to the state fair after that to wander around before my booth shift starts at 3:00. But the fair is fun so I don't really consider that work. If anyone happens to be there Friday night stop by the Kentucky Farm Bureau booth in the South A wing and say hi! I'll give you a cool KFB notebook and yellow school bus bag and you can test your skills on Kentucky history. ;)

Disgruntled Employee?

Where I work we have cubicles thus there is no privacy at all, what-so-ever.  I about sneezed coffee out my nose last week when someone walked by having a fairly serious conversation and asked "Do you ever feel like when you are here you are stuck in 'Office Space'?"

What to blog about...

I've decided that I work too much to blog about anything interesting.  Thank goodness camping season starts this month!  We're hoping to go camping at the end of April with a gang of friends at Green River...should be a good time!  I haven't been to Green River since I lived there oh so long ago.  We've actually got our camper up for sale in hopes of getting one that will better meet our needs.  We'd like one with a slide-out and more storage space.

In other news, my blogger friend Jen just had a precious baby girl, so welcome to Lily!  I've been following her blog just waiting for the day to see pictures!  

It's supposed to be really nice this weekend so hopefully I'll get some more photography shooting in.  If it's dry enough I plan on taking a hike through the woods behind our house to see what I can see.  We have a pair of red-tailed hawks that live there and a HUGE woodpecker that I'd love to get shots of.  I chased the woodpecker around a couple of times last summer with no luck.  We shall see what happens...

Chaotic Week Finally Ending

So things have been a little hectic lately and I haven't had much time (or desire) to update my blog. Work has been crazy with a million tasks due at once, a million problems without answers and a million meetings to keep me from resolving my million issues. It's a horrendous cycle that never ends. Today I finally feel like I'm pulling ahead, for the first time in a month, thus am in a pretty content mood. Plus Survivor comes on tonight...I'm a hopeless Survivor addict.

To add to the above chaos, I've been having issues with my knees. I've always had knee problems (popping, aching, pain after physical activity, etc), but after buying a mountain bike earlier this summer it has become 10 times worse. So after 3 months of doctors appointments, 2 months of physical therapy and many months of knee pain, we finally know what is wrong with my right knee. I've been officially diagnosed with chondromalacea and patellar tendinitis. In English, this means that my knee cap sits at an angle, causing it not to track straight and thus slowly rubbing away the cartilage in my knee. Luckily it does not require surgery (yet) and some home physical therapy and a lovely knee brace should do the trick. So I've been starting out with some walking around the neighborhood (which the dogs are loving) and trying to keep my activities to a minimum to let the knee heal and begin to track correctly...so probably no more biking until next spring. :( Luckily camping is easy on the knees and we're planning our next trip...one that will be a four day event in mid-October.

We don't have much planned for the weekend. The company I work for closes at noon each Friday, which makes for a nice extended weekend or a nice time to play catch-up from the week. This Friday afternoon is the company's first annual cornhole tournament with all proceeds benefiting Metro United Way. Being a fun event and a good cause I signed up to play in the double-elimination tourny and will also be taking photos of the festivities. The rest of the weekend at home so far entails sealing our back deck/porch and doing some more yard work and landscaping before winter sets in. Fridays and Saturdays this time of year are usually spent hanging out on the back porch and enjoying the nice weather. It's not unusual for a friend or two or more to stop by and hang out with us, and I don't expect this weekend to be any different. After all, it's the perfect time of year for porch sitting and having a good time...and we have a great porch for it! This weekend might even be a good one for a small bonfire in the back yard. :)