Raincharm’s Weblog

As President’s Day, many folks had the day off. And many more had to take the day off because their kids were out of school.

At my office it is a “floater”. You may take it off as a holiday, or work and save your holiday for another time. The only caveat is that you must take the day before the end of the Calendar year. We have four days like this through the year, originally so that folks could save them to take the days between Christmas and New Years off. [Some companies in this area – especially those that make airplanes and employ large numbers of folks – do not operate during this week, and schools are out, so many are looking for this week as family time.] I usually work on Floaters, but have lost one or two over the years when I could not find time to take off later in the year.

Today I worked part of the day, but not the entire day.
Technically I worked, so still have the floater available for later in the year.
I don’t feel particularly guilty about skipping part of the day because I worked Saturday.
No problem with the 40 hour week bit.

The reason for the partial day was to spend the afternoon with various contractors.
We had scheduled an Energy Audit for the house.
The City has a program where you pay $95 for the audit (which they say would normally cost $400). [The audit contractor did spend about 5 hours at the house, so I know this part was a deal.] They provide a report telling you how to improve the energy efficiency of your house. If you hire the contractor (or another one participating in the program), you are eligible for rebates from both the City and the Power Works program.

Since we were going to be adding insulation and energy-saving features, this was a no-brainer for us. It will save us from having to track down and figure out rebate potential.

In addition to the auditor, our general contractor and architect showed up with a window person. We were hoping to get the furnace guy as well, but he apparently had a conflict. The window person is going to provide quotes for window improvements that will free our double hung to working shape again, add a second pane (slip) on the outside and a few other points I don’t recall. We are getting quotes on all the windows and will pare down to what is affordable later.

I can see many decisions looming on the horizon.

The current date for starting the real work is mid-April.
That means that our real work starts (continues) now!
Scary and exciting, all at the same time.

Movie: Somewhere in here we rented a movie, but I can’t remember which day, which doesn’t really matter anyway. It was  Finding Neverland, a telling of the creation of the Peter Pan story. This would have to be classified in the “Chic flick” category, but we both enjoyed in none-the-less. It was recommended by a friend who enjoyed the scenes of young brothers, putting on a show, which apparently rang true to his youth. Carl really enjoyed the liberation and transformation of imagination into a story, which is how he spends much of his work time.  

Valentines Day: We had started the earlier part of the week with a heart-shaped meatloaf. Heart shaped food continued to be a theme for this year. Breakfast was essentially a rendering of the normal food into a heart shape. Sugar beets made an appearance in the juice of the day – for the red color.

A Full of Beans Valentine

Lunch – I should have taken pictures, but you will have to use your imagination here. Meatloaf – cut in the shape of a heart. Peanuts, with a note claiming, “I am nuts about you.” A bed of blueberries topped by an apple cut in the shape of a heart. A hard-boiled egg with stickers proclaiming love affixed to the shell. And yogurt. Come to think of it, there was nothing special done to the yogurt.

Dinner included this strawberry spread. (I ate the “I” part of the message before snapping the pic.)

(Even the strawberries are in the heart shape-of-the-day)

At least the day left me well fed.

Friday Night: We decided to recreate college days – but whose college days?
We obtained to more traditionally college-aged youth (Ashlan’s friends) and found a nearby bar. Walking in I recreated entrance into the smoky bars of my college days. Except there is no smoking in Seattle bars, so I had to rely on my glasses fogging. We eventually found a table and had a pint or two. Well, the younger generation had a pint or two. I had a “small” beer, and Carl kept to his limit on carbs. It was great to see the girls and catch up a bit. So much fun that we closed the bar! Well, we got home about 1 AM – much later than I have been out for a while.

It is now Saturday morning – and I am at work. (And almost ready to start work.) Thanks to Caitlin for getting me roused out of bed and starting my day at a reasonable hour.

We skyped with Rey tonight.
Mostly the normal, run-of-the-mill family discussions.

And then we discovered

The Beast Within

Rey was ready to go to bed, but I just kept discovering more fun things to play with.
That is all.

My brother-in-law did such a sweet post, that I feel compelled to follow suit.

In case you don’t know what you are looking at – it is a heart. (With a smiley face 🙂 )
[I suggested an alien, but my suggestion was not taken to heart.]

I have heard the saying, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
I guess that must be true for women as well.

When I met Carl he was working and I was in school
He had a house, and I needed a roof with low rent.
(Note that low rent does not always equate with no cost.)

Now WE have a house, I spend more hours at work (thanks to that schooling), and Carl takes care of me. Dishes, laundry, vacuuming, and cooking. I love his meatloaf, and now it seems – his meatloaf loves right back.

Ok – let’s face it. Mark’s tribute is just plain better on all accounts. But he has been married 5 years longer. (And I never, ever thought of the “Independence Day” to last day of independence juxtaposition before.)

Sunday was my weekend day at home.
Except that I started it out working from home – so what is the difference.

The difference was that we had a potential destination for the day.
AND after the fog burned off it was SUNNY!

Of course, by the time I got to the point where – I was not done, but needed to leave – the sun was about to be covered by a cloud bank. (Not a cloud that might cover for a bit, and then leave – but a bank of clouds that was continuous.) We continued on anyway. It was dry, and the sun had not been adding too much warmth.

Our objective was on south Capital Hill near the Seattle University Campus.
We took a bit of a different route than we had before and finally found the I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park.

Be Careful Out There

We had been close on several different routes, but never directly adjacent.

Since we didn’t have bikes to play in the nearly deserted park, we took off on a Pedestrian Park – otherwise known as one of the many sets of Seattle stairs.

The initial view

This set of stairs should be named Progressive Disclosure.

Around a curve

You know from the start it is a long set of stairs, but every time you reach a slight change in direction even more steps appear.

End in sight – we think

In the end we climbed 300 steps. It was not the full set as there are steps below the Bike park as well.

Here is a Garfield pic for the kids. (Aren’t Garfield folks so serious)

Note the G hat

Five miles later we reached our destination, the Photo Center Northwest.
The primary reason for the visit was to view the Vivian Maier exhibit. This selection is from the Wilmette beach – kids under an upturned boat.

“Partial View of Feet”, Wilmette, IL, 1968

From the Vivian Maier Website (linked above)

My personal favorite.

Her story started us on our trek, and the pictures were worth the effort. As it turns out some were taken in locations that Carl frequented as a youth – doubly interesting.

This is where we were last night, at the Seattle Women’s Chorus concert, with Vicci Martinez.
Ms. Martinez is a fairly local product (Tacoma), and was on the Voice. I never saw her on the voice, but she sure has a great pipes.

It was fun. So crowded after the concert in the lobby that we never found our friends that sing in the chorus. We did run into an old acquaintance, parent to one of Ashlan’s friends growing up (Kyranny).

It was nice to have a break from the grind.

[I am actually back at the grind right now, but taking a break to communicate.]

Work is just endless right now, and for the foreseeable next few months.
So we will take our breaks when they appear.

I am also going to try to push a “fun” project at work next week.
Not a project I will probably get to work on, but one that might have some fun results.

On a visit to Ann Arbor a few years ago we ran across the hydrant exhibit outside of the old Fire House.
We have old hydrants in our bone yard. I thought it would be fun to paint them up and mount them in our “front yard” at the office. They could be painted by either us or outside folks. Kind of like the pigs, horses, and whatever else sprouts up around cities from time to time. We will have to see if I can generate any kind of enthusiasm. I think the key may be getting time alloted from normal work schedules to put it together.

The first hydrant is one of those in Ann Arbor (out of service), the others are in Cleveland – an in service.

And I had a moment of private satisfaction when a problem I had pointed out and had a little bit of an eco-freak hissy fit about at work, is actually going to get addressed. And it has been less than a month since the fit. The resolution may take a bit longer, but at least it has been recognized as a problem that must be resolved.

All for now – back to the grind.

Not a real word I know, but it perfectly describes this week for me.

Today I was feeling smug at the chiropractor’s office because I was feeling good.
And then he asked me what I had been doing all day, because my back was so tight.
“Sitting in meetings” was my answer.

And I had been – all day. Literally. Including one in the afternoon that I didn’t have on my calendar – until the middle of my morning meeting. And it will continue at least through Thursday. On that day I get to attend my bi-annual First Aid training followed by a Commissioner meeting.

(Note that none of this is helping me meet my strict schedule for the major project.)

Back to the subject of words, Carl wondered aloud if Carnal and Carnival had similar roots.

The answer based on my limited research is, “Yes.”
Caro – latin for “flesh.”

Kind of a jumbled day all-in-all, and I am of jumbled mind so I should just stop.

The day was not a total loss, there were two points at which a co-worker and I dissolved into giggles based on misunderstood actions and misspoken words. It would be too hard to explain here, but it involved banana peels, a trip to the restroom and holding stuff.

Of course today is the Super Bowl.
But not for a while yet.

Yesterday was a work day (for me).
I chose Saturday because today is Super Sunday.
I had some specific tasks to work on.

When I need to start a big project, I have to start by organizing.

When I do the dishes, I get them staged to one side of the sink. Neatly stacked.
Then I work my way through them.
[ This is opposite of Carl’s all over the place method – throw them all in the sink, no real order.]

So the first step I had back into my mega-project was to organize the bits of paper scattered around my office. This morphed into cleaning my office. I think I threw out two waste baskets full of paper – at least. And rearranged some bits here and there. And ordered some more. Based on dates it has been since sometime in 2011 that I last cleaned my office.

I am now staged to work on the mega-project, but not much got done on the project itself – yesterday.

Today I plan to try again to make some progress.
While watching listening to the run-up to the BIG GAME.

I got up early to take a few friends to the airport, so off to a start (although blogging is definitely not working). But it does get my brain activated and engaged – a good thing.

I have also decided I am rooting for the Ravens.
SF is in our division (I think), but my decision is based on the homophobic comments of one of their players, and the lack of decisive response from his teammates against his comments.

Not a very football reason.
OK – I like purple a lot more than red and yellow.

I hope you enjoy the game, food, commercials or avoidance strategy if the game is not on your agenda for the day.

Yesterday was my scattered day.

I felt truly scattered yesterday.
Almost from the moment I got up.
The morning routine things were just not falling into place.
Simple things – like take the bath mat out of the bathtub after the shower.
Important things – like take your coffee cup with you when the car-pooler arrives.
(He did allow me to go back into the house and retrieve the cup.)

Work did not improve the situation.
I did get a few things done for a few customers – right away. I am sure they appreciated the effort.
But the big projects lagged even further behind.

I was trying to keep energy to finish said day project that night, but to calm down at the same time.

And I just felt so scattered.

This morning I forgot to brush my teeth, and thought it was going to be a repeat of yesterday.
After using a toothbrush I keep at work, the day improved.

Ended with yoga.
And calm.

That is how I could describe my lovely husband.
Diamond – could be a baseball reference (duh), could be a name (Diamond Natasha is one we knew), could be a rock (although they do not grace our fingers).

In this case it is a shape.

The lovely couple