Women are from cyber-Venus

I just half read an article on the front page of today’s paper that was entitled Women are from cyber-Venus. It basically said men use to the internet to find things to do, women use it to find people to talk to. So, that’s news to someone? I guess blogging fills both needs. If it didn’t, blogs would be predominantly authored by women, and when I blog-hop, that’s not what I see. Some of the best, most riveting, funniest, most entertaining blogs are written by guys.

Okay…time out… I just choked on my own saliva. How crazy is that? You know, when you somehow breathe in the saliva that you meant to swallow and you go into a coughing frenzy trying to clear your trachea of the unwelcome liquid making its way toward your lungs? Wow… thought I was going to die.

My cat, who was lounging on my lap as I awkwardly tried to type on my laptop as it sat on the arm of the sofa, instead of my lap where SHE was sitting, is now sitting next to me glaring at me, twitching her tail, as if I had this near-death episode just to get her off my lap. I admit, there have been times I’ve been tempted to have some sort of seizure or other seemingly uncontrollable fit as a way of removing her from my lap.

You see, we have this routine. Ali, the queen of the house, our 8 year-old calico, sits on the back of the sofa waiting for me to get home from work. I come in the door, do the usual coming-home-from-work stuff – dump my purse and keys, bring in the paper and mail, take off my Uggs and put on my slippers – and then usually make my way toward the other sofa (the reclining leather one) so I can start blogging. The minute I sit down, she runs to the foot of the sofa and sits, waiting. I open the laptop, sit down, and get the Mexican blanket I use to keep the chill off, pull out the recliner – and then she makes her move. She jumps up into my lap. I dare not try to remove her or she will bite the living heck out of me. Since her declawing (see post) she bites more than ever. I guess it’s her way of getting even with me.

Not only does she insist on sitting right in the middle of my lap, she sticks her face right in mine. I cringe, waiting. It’s only a matter of time before she takes a chunk out of my cheek or nose. I usually put my hand up between her face and mine, just in case. She’ll sit like this, in my lap, as I reach over her to type on my crazily located laptop, until she gets good and ready to leave. Sometimes that can be half an hour.

I know, I’m nuts. I should just give her a shove and send her flying off my lap. I’m too nice. I actually adore this little furball. When she’s not next to me at night in bed, curled into the small of my back, I find it difficult to fall asleep. When Jonathan is home from school, his bed is her preferred sleeping spot, so unless he shuts his door to keep her from bugging him all night, she sleeps with him. I hate it. I miss her little warm body. It’s amazing how heavy a 12-pound cat is when they’re sleeping. She’s a real bed hog too. But I love it.

Anyway, my coughing fit scared her, and made her mad. She’s flicking her tail back and forth like a bull whip. Maybe I should be very afraid.

So, back to the article. My first inclination is to disagree. I use the internet to find stuff I need to know – for work, personally, whatever. I don’t IM like all the kids do, I don’t play games (though I have been known to do a Sudoku puzzle now and then), and I don’t visit chat sites. But I do blog, love reading other blogs (well-written ones or those of family or friends), commenting on blogs I read, and “meeting” people via the blogs. So, I suppose that does fit the premise to a certain extent. But I spend most of my internet time researching things. That occupies far more of my time than does blogging or blog hopping.

So, here is the story:

Women are from cyber-Venus …
Gender differences translate to Internet
Victor GodinezDallas Morning NewsDecember 29, 2005

DALLAS – Men spend their time on the Internet looking for stuff to do. Women look for people to talk to.

These are among the main findings to emerge from a series of surveys released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow with Pew, said that men and women have become equally adept at navigating the Internet. "Beyond that, there seems to be a little of a fork in the road," she said. "Men are more action-oriented, and women are more communication-oriented."

Men go online more often and spend more time on the Internet. For example, men are more likely to check sports news (59 vs. 27 percent of online women), get financial information (56 vs. 33 percent), download software (48 vs. 31 percent) or participate in an auction (30 vs. 18 percent). Men (42 percent) are also more likely to pay bills online than women (35 percent).

Women lead in other areas, such as sending e-mail (94 vs. 88 percent). And 74 percent of women look up health and medical information online, compared with 58 percent of men.

"Right now, online life mirrors off-line life very closely," said Fallows, the report's author. "I was surprised at that. I was looking really hard to find counter trends and just find things that either broke the stereotype or changed what you typically believe."

Online retailers and other vendors should pay attention to the findings, Fallows said. She said, for example, that when shopping in clothing stores, women often chat with one another in the dressing room, looking for tips and opinions. For an online retailer catering to women, building a message board or chat room into the site might allow similar interactions.

"If you were a savvy Web designer and had this stuff in mind, you might make some of the shopping experience more tailored," Fallows said.

One finding that Fallows said was somewhat counterintuitive was that a greater percentage of women ages 18 to 29 are online than men that age: 86 percent vs. 80 percent.

"Technology doesn't seem to be an impediment for the youngest women the way it is for older women," she said. "They've grown up with it."

The report included data from a variety of surveys conducted from 2000 to 2005, and the margin of error ranges between 2 and 3 percentage points.

Interesting…. I am very atypical. I’ve been paying bills online since my bank first offered it over 5 years ago. I get financial information online, download software (usually work related, though often not), and I participate in my fair share of auctions, especially when it comes to college textbooks. My husband also atypical. He hates computers, has zero interest in the internet unless he wants ME to look something up for him, and is freaked out about blogging, email, and “online friends” (his term). In fact, he’s so weird about my “internet friends” that he doesn’t even know I have a blog. He thinks it’s weird that I read my son’s college friends’ blogs. I guess it’s something he can’t control so he doesn’t like it. Anyway, interesting article.

Gotta go check the crock pot. Got something delicious brewing! :)

Holiday Pause

We're between holidays now, a good time to catch our collective breath. Christmas was really nice. We spent the day at our oldest son's house along with his family (wife, 2 girls), our daughter and her family (husband, 1 girl, 1 boy), younger son (not married), daughter-in-law's father, stepfather, mother, 2 sisters, brother, sister-in-law, AND..... my husband's ex-wife. Despite the fact that she had previously told the two oldest children that my husband and I were not be included in the holiday gathering, things went well. She and I spent most of the day talking to one another - a marvel in itself since, before Christmas, the longest we've ever spent talking to each other nicely was about two hours when our 2nd granddaughter was born. It went quite well, actually. I even fixed her computer for her. We had an incredible dinner of the most amazing prime rib, superb ham, mashed potatoes, vegetables, green salad, breads, and desserts, with some fine wine to accompany the foodstuffs. It was great! And the kids got way too many presents - so many I don't think they know yet everything they got - and spent the day playing with video games. It was a very nice day.

Now, let's pray the New Year is filled with the Lord's blessings and that we each remember exactly what Christmas is really all about.

The Da Vinci Code

I've been reading - errr, rather, listening to - that book. For the longest time, I had no interest whatsoever in reading it. I tend to be "that way" - not one to jump on the bandwagon of the latest, greatest, hot thing. I have yet read a single Harry Potter book, though I have seen the movies. Back to Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code was such a phenomenon you would think I'd have plunked down my library card and added myself to the unending list of requestors, but I did not. Only by chance am I listening to it now. One of my co-workers has previously recommended spoken word books that I have really enjoyed. I was feeling the urge to listen again to some literary masterpiece, so I went to him for a recommendation. He mentioned a couple of titles, then said something about The Da Vinci Code and I decided "why not?" We had it on CD, which was perfect! I could listen to it on my way to and from work as well as in my office. Since my commute is a brief 15 minutes long, just listening to it in my car would require about a year to finish it. Well, one CD into the book, I was hooked. I can see why the book created such a stir among Christians and non-Christians alike. I found myself saying "wow, I didn't know that" or "is that true?" I had to find out more. I did what any good techno-geek would do; I went online for answers. If you've never done it, Google The Da Vinci Code sometime. It's mind boggling. Conspiracy theorists must be having a field day. There is a lot of stuff out there, most of it crap. Fortunately, I am pretty good at discerning good sources from bad ones.

I found some very interesting and informative sites. One notable site is lisashea.com. She does a great job on the topic. Click here for her Da Vinci Code info. From this site, and a few others, I gathered the information I was seeking. I just need to keep reminding myself, as I'd told people all along before ever reading the tome, it's fiction, people, fiction! There is enough fact interspersed with fiction to confuse you, and to make for a very convincing story about the Catholic church's role in hiding the truth about Jesus, but it is a work of fiction. The less-than-factual information does not lessen my enjoyment of the book one iota. It did get me to look up some stuff I probably would not have otherwise, which means I learned something, and that's always a good thing (gosh, I sound like Martha Stewart). It's an interesting concept, to say the least - that the Catholic church supressed (hid?) the role of Mary Magdalene, and women in general, and lied about Christ's divinity in order to further their cause - but I don't buy it. I guess I'm just one of those people who believes that Christ is the Son of God, that He died for us, and that the Bible is the Word of God, given to man to guide and teach us. Are there, perhaps, some interpretational issues in the various versions? Probably. Are we to take everything in the Bible literally? I can't imagine how we possibly could. That's why we have to understand to whom each book was written, or what the writer's purpose was in writing the book, so we can understand what was written in the context of the times, the audience, etc. Certainly, if God were to give man the Bible today, there would be references to MTV, iPods, and the internet - and what would those things mean to a generation 500 years from now? 2000 years from now?

Anyway, I'm on my soapbox. Back to the book. It's a great mystery, well written, captivating - and I have yet to finish it, so don't spoil the ending for me! If you haven't read it, do so. If you, like me, find yourself too often short of time to read, listen to it on tape or CD. The actor who reads it, Paul Michael, does an excellent job with accents, French, keeping the characters straight. It's quite entertaining.

Par-Tay

Today will be a fun day. My best friend and I are having our annual Christmas lunch/gift exchange today. I adore her. We work together - sort of. We work in the same place, but she works downstairs, while I work upstairs. If I don't visit her office or she mine, we could go all day without seeing one another. These little escapes, of which we partake on our birthdays and on Christmas, are nice escapes wherein we can gossip about everything and everyone, complain about our husbands and children, share our well-kept secrets, and celebrate our wonderfulness. We have a blast! The staff lounge is already filling with Christmas goodies. The air is celebratory. The holidays are upon us and I am embracing them enthusiastically!

Christmas came early

The weekend began on a positive note. Saturday morning we went to Spokane to pick Jonathan up - well, actually, to pick up some of his belongings that he wanted with him over Christmas break that would not fit into his car. His car held his computer (naturally, we couldn't expect him to come home for two weeks sans computer) and two monitors, his clothes, and sundry other things, while our car held his photography portfolio, his Photoshop projects, and some miscellaneous electronics. Turns out, he didn't really need our help after all.

Next stop was Burlington Coat Factory. Now, I had told Tom I didn't want anything for Christmas. He recently took me on a clothes shopping spree, during which I bought 4 pairs of jeans and about 6 or 7 new tops. I don't need anything! I finally said "well, the only thing I can imagine wanting is a new coat. I want a nice, feminine wool coat, about mid-thigh in length." Knowing the buying me jeans took two full days of shopping, he figured buying me a coat would entail a similar investment in time, and knew full well he could not even attempt to buy one without having me try it on. I have broad shoulders "for a girl" and very long arms (that sort of is a given when you're 5' 10"). Because I have spent a good number of years lifting weights, I larger than average upper arms, made worse by the layer of fat currently covering any muscle I might have left after this past year of relative inactivity. In other words, he was smart to take me along. As soon as I realized our destination, I knew our purpose. I found the women's "pant coat" racks and set about finding the coat of my dreams. I had it in my head, just wasn't sure it really existed. We waded through dozens of coats of varying styles, cuts, colors, and prices. I tried on one London Fog coat that I liked, but it had a hood, which I didn't like. It also had patch pockets, which I wasn't too keen on. I wanted a double-breasted coat with no belt and vertical pockets, black wool, and flattering. Many of the coats I tried on were way too tight in the arms and shoulder area. Even coats way too big for me fit that way. I was getting a bit frustrated. After about 30 minutes, Tom pulled a coat off the rack that looked like it might be a likely candidate. It was a Jones of New York coat. It was black. Was double-breasted. Had no belt. Now, would it fit my arms? I put it on and YES! It fit perfectly! It was better than I had hoped for! It is double-breasted, has a very flattering cut - it comes in at the waist slightly and is princess seamed, which makes for a very flattering and slimming fit. It has a nice detail on the sleeves that mimics the mock belt in the back. It was the coat of my dreams - and it was only $90! So, here's a photo of it. Guess they also have it at Overstock.com, so it must be an outdated model, but what the heck do I care?!?!? I love it! It's black.
So, I got my Christmas present on Saturday! Between the coat and having Jonathan home, I couldn't ask for much more. We drove to Coeur d'Alene and met Shana, Ryan and the grandkids for lunch at Chili's - another great time - and then headed back home to unpack Jonathan and sit around watching movies. Now I just have to wrap all the presents, buy Tom's present, and I'm all set!

Feeding Frenzy

I'm eating a Zone Meal. It is a perfectly created meal in the exact right propotions of proteins, carbs, and fats to put me squarely in The Zone (think reverberation chamber and deep James Earl Jones type voice when saying that). Why, you ask, am I downing this swill? Well, a couple of reasons come to mind. One, it was in my pantry. Has been there for probably 3 or 4 years. It's one of those indestructible type meals that requires no refrigeration or freezing, the kind you take into Y2K with you - just in case. And now that I mention Y2K, this meal probably pre-dates Y2K. I was on The Zone Diet for a while. Both of us were. We wanted to rid our bodies of all the horrible things and get in (reverb chamber) The Zone. It became quite cumbersome to balance every meal perfectly, so I resorted to buying Zone meals. Then we went off The Zone Diet and the uneaten meals languished in the pantry. They got pushed further and further back every time I went to the grocery store. I think I finally gave several away to the Boy Scouts for one of their food drives. Heck, they're not cheap, they are nutritious, they are a complete meal - the food bank should be delighted to have them! Anyway, I realized I still have three or four in the pantry. I'm trying to eat properly, and it turns out it's sort of a "zoneish"diet that I'm following, so when I went looking for lunch makings today, and this little Zone Meal was waving its hand, jumping up and down, and saying "pick me, pick me", I decided to take a chance. So, today it's Chicken Gumbo. It's not bad, just awfully fatty. That's what I do remember about the meals. They seem fatty, or more specifically, oily. The meat is good and the black beans and corn are tasty, but the layer of orange oil that is stuck to the sides of the serving container is a bit nauseating. I'm not sure what kind of oil it is. It reminds me of dirty Dexron II ATF fluid. I think I've just lost my appetite.

Disappointed

Alas, no moon tonight. The sky is overcast, the mountains are not visible. I was hoping for a photo-op, but there is none to be had tonight. A missed opportunity. Too many of those in life. We must learn to take advantage of them as they present themselves, not let them slip away.

Moonshadow

I was on the phone yesterday with Jeff, my rep from CDW-G (the government sales department of CDW) chatting about college basketball (go Duke! go Zags!), NFL playoffs (go Colts!), and other sports-related matters, when I looked out the window, and stopped in mid-sentence. It was about 4:00 PM. My window faces east. I look out over most of the town of Sandpoint (my office is on the second floor). To the east is a range of mountains that are right about where the borders of Montana and Idaho meet. This time of year, they are snow-capped, and on sunny days, they are glorious. At dusk, they are usually painted in pinks and oranges, set off by a deepening blue sky. This view serves to remind me just how lucky I am live here, despite how I might grouse about the snow or grey skies or unceasingly wet weather in the spring. Yesterday, what stopped me was not only the beauty of the mountains, but the shockingly low-hung full moon, sitting just above the treetops a bit to the northeast, brilliantly illuminated, like a street lamp just turned on. It was still so light out, and yet the moon shone so brightly, and sat so huge above the trees. It felt like you could reach out and touch it. I shared the scene with Jeff, exclaiming the beauty of the scene. He was in Chicago, where it was well past dark. He couldn't see the moon - something about a storm in his neck of the woods - so viewed it vicariously through my description. I meant to take a photo of it, but I got busy and forgot. I'll watch for the scene to repeat itself tonight, and hopefully take a shot of it to post herein.

This morning is awash with its own sort of beauty, as the eastern sky (my living room faces east too) welcomes the sun to paint it in delightful magentas and brilliant oranges. It will be sunny and cold today - 14 or 18 degrees for our high I think - a beautiful day indeed. Cheers!

Ugged

I loathe shoes. A native Californian, I wore them as infrequently as possible. I spent most of my childhood barefoot, despite my mother's well-intentioned warnings about rusty nails, tetanus shots, gangrenous infections that would result in the loss of toes, and worse. After actually stepping on a rusty nail that protruded from a discarded, weatherbeaten two-by-four, whilst wearing Keds, the sole of which offered no protection whatsoever from the nail that went right through it and into my foot, I decided shoes were definitely a waste of time. I usually removed them as quickly as possible as soon as I was out of my mother's sight.

When my feet grew to size 9 1/2 by the time I was 12, shoes were more bothersome than ever, especially finding them to fit. Women with size 9 1/2 feet were not that common then, whereas today, size 9 is the new size 7 - everyone wears a 9. Back in the day, shoes went from size 9 to size 10, unless you were ready to part with a week's pay, and even then, good luck finding a 9 1/2. I know this because my first job ever was selling shoes. Ironic, huh? A girl who hates wearing shoes spends two years selling them during her high school years. But we didn't carry 9 1/2's. 9's or 10's, no 9 1/2's. I will admit this - during my tenure as a shoe salesperson, I bought lots of shoes. I could wear 9's in those old square-toed styles that were popular in the early 70's, so when we got our shipments of new shoes, if there was a style I liked, I snatched one of the two pairs of 9's we would get in. I eventually had a shoe wardrobe consisting of 25 sinfully indulgent pairs of the latest, greatest shoes available. Since footwear was required in school, and flip-flops did not qualify as acceptable footwear in 1970, I made the most of my employee discount. I even had navy blue patent leather boots that laced up and had brass eyelets and hugged your leg and matched a navy blue belt with big brass belt holes like the eyelets on the boots. I was so hip! But I digress. I only wore shoes when I absolutely had to, like to work, to school, to funerals and weddings - that pretty much covers it. The moment I got home, off went the shoes. Feet were meant to be unbound, toes free to wriggle and spread as needed. California was the perfect place for a shoephobe like me.

Then I moved to Idaho. Summers here are warm, and going barefoot is perfectly normal. But when we moved here, most people had gravel driveways, not cement or asphalt. And most of the parking lots were gravel. Big, jagged, gnarly gravel. The kind that, when you walk on it barefoot, makes you wish you were shod. Not me. I have leather for soles on my feet. I have the toughest feet ever. I walked daily from my front door to my mailbox across a 100 foot long, very rugged, gravel driveway for nearly ten years. My husband would run to soak his feet after simply watching me do this, but then, his feet hurt walking on carpet. He always wears socks inside, shoes outside. He has baby feet. He thinks I'm insane.

And then it snowed. Did that stop my barefooting ways? No way, Jose! I walk to get the newspaper in my bare feet more often than not. It gets a bit cold at times, especially when we are in the midst of an Arctic blast, but my feet can take it. They've had 50 years experience!

Now, when it rains, and the (now paved) driveway is covered in nightcrawlers, and I'm walking to get the paper in the dark and step on a slimy worm, well... then I give my barefooting ways a second thought, but that's about the only time. Before you go getting all crazy on me about safety issues or some such nonsense (like my mother and her lockjaw stories), let me sayd, I do wear shoes when I mow the lawn. Well, sort of. I wear my Chaco sandals. Obviously, I have to wear shoes at work. In the summer, I wear my Chacos every single day. Wearing them is almost as good as going barefoot. My feet get a crazy zig-zagged tan line, I paint my toenails, and do what I can to make my clodhopper feet look at least a little feminine, which means I put lotion on them to try to soften my calluses. But Chacos aren't the most feminine sandals around. They're pretty much designed for mountain climbing, stream hopping, hiking, and whatnot. I love them. They are so comfortable, and comfort is the name of the game! In the winter, once the snow gets too deep for my Chacos, I don my Uggs.
Uggs barely count as shoes. They are soft, warm, and oh so comfortable. They are almost as good as going barefoot, especially since you don't wear socks with them. I love my Uggs. I have black ones, with black sheepskin inside, so my feet turn a greenish-gray from the dye rubbing off on them. It reminds me of how people are supposed to make sure they have on clean underwear in case they get hit by a car and have to go to the hospital - something about doctors and nurses seeing you in clean underwear so you don't embarrass your mother. What would they think of my gray-green feet? Would they think I had some horrible disorder and bring in Dr. House to determine the cause? I don't care. I love my Uggs. I loathe shoes, but I love Uggs.

Fact or fiction?

I stumbled across a really interesting blog yesterday.  Actually, interesting is too bland a word.  The blog is called Waiting for Bloggo – a play on Waiting for Godot.  The link is http://waitingforbloggo.blogspot.com.  It is purported to be a team blog, maintained by david and elizabeth – they use lower case letters when they speak of and to one another.  To really get a feel for this blog, one must read it from the beginning.  I initially believed it to be truly a team blog, with postings by two individuals.  As I’ve now read all of it through today’s posting, I have come to believe it is a carefully constructed piece of fiction posing as a team blog.  It is quite well written and the feeling that it is actually a team blog with postings by two different individuals is hard to shake, but too often the writing styles and cadences are too similar to be merely coincidence.  There are also too many coincidences in their lives to be simply serendipity.  Nonetheless, it is entertaining in the way a good piece of fiction is entertaining.  I find myself returning to it regularly, looking for the next chapter in their “love story” as it unfolds before me.  One thing it does is makes me want to write better.  Some of the descriptive passages by “elizabeth” are so very well written it almost breaks my heart.  I started off trying to write interesting, thought-provoking, well constructed posts on this blog.  I have missed the mark more often than not.  Too often I simply write the way I speak – quickly, voluminously, and without much content.  I need to do better.  Another thing this blog has done is point me to a few other interesting blogs, some of which I will link to.  It has also made me ponder the idea of creating a completely anonymous blog like david and elizabeth’s in which I can pour out my soul without fear of retribution or discovery.  Perhaps blogging should be more anonymous and hence, more honest.  It’s a thought.

Diet Killers

Wow, did I pick a bad time of year to decide to stick to a diet.  I officially started last Monday.  I stuck to it, more or less, until Friday.  Friday was our staff Christmas breakfast, which meant many delicious foodstuffs to be had.  One of my coworkers brought in three different cheesecakes.  THREE!  One was chocolate, one was something kind of chocolatey but with some wonderful carmelized crust, and one I didn’t try because it looked like it had blueberries in it and they are not my favorite fruit.  I never get cheesecake because my husband hates the stuff – can’t even stand the smell of it – and yet, it has to be my all time favorite dessert.  Naturally, I had a piece of both of the chocolate-based cheesecakes.  I made frittata as my contribution, and couldn’t pass up a serving for myself.  I think I had some other things to eat too, but mostly remember the cheesecake since it was the major diet-buster.  

After the party, I headed to Spokane to have the radio replaced in my Jetta under a recall.  Seems the radio has some problem in its firmware that makes the satellite receiver go bad, which happened to us, so it had to be replaced.  That project was projected to take “a couple of hours”, so I had Jonathan drive over to pick me up and take me along with him while he finished taking photos for his photography class.  That was fun, actually.  I helped him select some scenes to photograph, and he took the pix.  He said his biggest problem is deciding what to take pictures of – narrowing the choices – and he welcomed my suggestions.  He took shots of the Spokane River and Falls from a little walking bridge that crosses it near the Flour Mill.  Then he took photos of the view of the clock tower and Expo tower thingee from the steps at the Spokane Arena. I guess those turned out pretty well.  We about froze to death (it was in the teens), but it was fun.  Finally, at 5 PM, my car was done.  Jonathan I and drove to Coeur d’Alene and met Tom at Chili’s for dinner (another diet killer), after which we each headed to our respective homes (Jonathan back to Whitworth, Tom and me back to Sandpoint).  

Saturday was our granddaughter Olivia’s 7th birthday.  That meant pizza and cake – diet killer #3.  Sunday was a Christmas shopping day for Tom and me, which involved eating out at Applebee’s.  I don’t think Chicken Panini, as wonderfully delicious as it was, is on my diet.  And I doubt the chili and cornbread we had for dinner when the kids came over to watch Polar Express was either.  So… last week was pretty terrible diet-wise.  This one should be much better – I hope.  I just have to stay away from any goodies that show up in the staff lounge.  Better yet, I should avoid the staff lounge altogether.  Too bad that’s where I have to store my lunch and go for coffee or hot water for tea.  Pray for me.  I need all the help I can get!

Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, Canada Weekend

What a terrific long weekend we had! On Friday, we (Tom, me, Shana, Ryan, Olivia, and Tyler) loaded up the Suburban (our trusty steed) with food, clothing, and the necessary toiletries, and headed to the Great White North – Canada. Our destination – Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, Canada. Tom and I have a timeshare in Las Vegas at the Tahiti Resort. Ours is a two bedroom deluxe – sleeps 8 –model, which means we can exchange for two one-week stays in a one bedroom, sleeps 4 (or bigger), condo pretty much anywhere in the world for a nominal exchange fee. That’s how we’re going to the UK – we’re exchanging for two one-week stays in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath cottage in Great Britain for $150 each week. Anyway, since we have the timeshare, through our exchange company, Interval International, we can buy “getaways” – weeklong stays at various timeshares all over the world – at greatly reduced prices and without giving up any of our weeks. We knew we wanted to go to a hot springs, but were undecided whether to go Ainsworth Hot Springs or Fairmont.

Ainsworth is cool, but there is nothing else to do there but go in the hot springs pools, and the road to Ainsworth is narrow and winding and kind of scary in the winter. There’s no town of Ainsworth. There is one restaurant, and the room sleeps 5, so we’d be sneaking Tyler in, and we’d be on the crowded side. It was going to cost us $260 to stay for two nights at Ainsworth.

Fairmont, on the other hand, is a little town with a grocery store, restaurants, and a couple of little shops. A much larger town, Invermere, is only 20 minutes away. If we got bored and wanted to just walk through a quaint little tourist town, we could head to Invermere, or even to Radium, about 40 minutes north, which has a very cool hot springs and tons of mountain goats and Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep on the craggy peaks above the hot springs. Fairmont just seemed like a much better idea. So, I checked Interval to see what was available in Fairmont, and learned we had our pick of 4 different resorts – Fairmont Villas at Riverside, Hillside, Riverview, or Mountainside. After checking out the info on the Interval website, we decided to go to Fairmont and stay at the villas at the Riverside resort. We would have a two-bedroom, two-bath, sleeps 8 condo with a full kitchen, a kitchenette, two living rooms, and 4 TV’s (no fighting among the kids over what to watch). The cost? $304 for a week! Too bad we could only stay for three days.

View from our condo patio.

Friday morning we loaded up and left Sandpoint at 9:30 AM. We had just had two days of snow and winds and the forecast was for even more, with travel advisories in place for northern Idaho and eastern Washington, but the forecast for the Fairmont area was partly cloudy and no snow. As we headed out, the roads were snow-packed, it was snowing, and it was slow going. By the time we hit Cranbrook, BC, about two hours north of Sandpoint, the road conditions had improved, but it was still cloudy and snowing lightly. We arrived at our resort in Fairmont at 1:30 PM, about half an hour longer than it usually takes to get there. Check-in time at the resort was 4PM but I figured we should see if we could get in early. If we couldn’t, we could always go up to the hot springs and hang out there until we could check in. Well, I completely forgot that Fairmont is on Mountain Standard Time, so instead of being 1:30, it was 2:30. They told us at the desk that we could check in at 3PM, so we only had half an hour to kill. We were welcome to use the recreation area of the resort while we waited, so we checked out the pool, hot tub, game room, children’s play area, and movie room. It is a super nice resort!

They show a movie every night at 7:30 in the upstairs movie room on a big screen TV. Friday and Saturday they were showing Because of Winn-Dixie, a movie I’ve heard of but have never seen. We thought maybe the kids would enjoy seeing that that night. Finally 3:00 arrived and we went downstairs to check in. The resort was pretty much empty. They are in the process of renovating several of the buildings and redecorating all of the villas with more contemporary furnishings, carpeting, etc. The current color scheme is teal, mauve, and cream. It looks like the new colors will be warm golds with black accents, and some other more dramatic colors.

Anyway, we headed to our villa – a two bedroom villa on the ground floor. We entered via the small side, which was nice, and then opened the door to the big side (remember, these can be rented as one unit or two separate units, so there is a locking door between the two sides). It was amazing! It was huge and beautifully decorated, even though, with the exception of the sofa, chair, and dining table it was the “old” style. The kitchen was as big as my kitchen at home with nice GE appliances, including a microwave over the range. The dining room set was gorgeous and enormous, easily accommodating all 6 of us. The living room was spacious, with a sofa bed, coffee table, side chair, TV, DVD/VCR player, stereo system, and gas fireplace. The large master bedroom had a queen-sized bed, and opened onto the master bath, which featured a 2 person jetted bathtub, a separate walk-in, 2 person shower on one side, and enclosed toilet on the other side. The “small side” featured a small living room with a sofa bed, TV with DVD/VCR player, and stereo, a kitchenette with a 2 burner stove, over the range microwave, small bar-sized refrigerator, and eating counter, bathroom with 2 person-jetted tub/shower, and a bedroom with a queen-sized bed and TV. Along the wall between the kitchen/dining room and the bedroom in the large side, there was a built-in buffet with drawers and cabinets, a countertop, and mirrors. Along the back of the large side was a huge patio with patio furniture, a gas barbecue grill that was plumbed into the natural gas, and a gorgeous view of the mountains, the golf course, and the huge homes that lined the fairways. Just outside our villa was a playground for the kids. It is an absolutely gorgeous resort and we had it practically to ourselves!

Shana & Ryan have never stayed in a timeshare, so they were blown away. The kitchen is, of course, fully stocked with pots, pans, dishes, glasses, silverware, cooking utensils, toaster, coffeemaker, and the like. I have to say, this was probably the nicest timeshare we have stayed in yet. Our condo in Vegas is new – only a couple of years old – but the rooms are not as big. Also, it’s Vegas – people are there to be somewhere other than their resort, and it shows. At Fairmont, they have scheduled activities all day long, every day; everything from craft activities for the kids, to walks along the meadows in the snow looking for wildlife, to movies every night. Golf is the focus in Fairmont, and a round of golf only takes so long so there have to be activities to occupy the rest of your time, whereas the Vegas Strip is the focus in Vegas and everything revolves around activities on the strip – free shows, dinners, etc. Very little time is actually spent at the condo in Vegas, with the exception of maybe hanging out at the pool in the morning before heading to the strip for dinner and a show or some gambling. Anyway, the resort in Fairmont was awesome.

We set about unpacking and eating a very light lunch, playing in the snow at the playground for a bit, and then decided to just take in the pool on-site that night, leaving the Hot Springs for the next day. We went to the pool about 5 PM. The kids just loved it. Olivia is like a little fish. She could spend all day in the water. Jonathan was like that when he was little. He just never wanted to get out of the pool. To our amazement, Tyler suddenly knew how to “swim”! Well, he dog paddles, and he does so so ferociously that he tires himself out in no time. We tried to teach him to stroke, which he would do for about 10 seconds before reverting to his dog paddle, but he could make it across the width of the pool, which is something he couldn’t do just a few months earlier. There was an outside hot tub, which we all soaked in while snow fell around us for about half an hour. Finally, about 7:00 we headed to the room to have dinner. We had planned to have frozen lasagna for dinner that night. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it would take almost two hours to cook. By the time it was ready, the kids were almost falling asleep. It was all they could to keep their eyes open while they were eating. The time in the pool had helped tire them both out. They would sleep well that night. We all got a great night’s sleep. The condos are very quiet!
We got up the next morning, had breakfast, then headed to the Suburban for the 3 minute drive to the hot springs. Uh-oh. The Suburban would not start. The battery was dead. This came as quite a shock because the Suburban is so reliable. After not driving it for almost two months, it started right up the morning we headed to Fairmont. We figured something must have been left on. We found one of the resort workers and asked if he had jumper cables. Well, he did, but they were in his other truck. He checked with several people and all had the same story – their cables were in their other vehicle. Finally, one guy dragged out the crustiest, most decrepit set of jumper cables I have ever seen. As he was bringing them to us, one of the connectors fell off. He went to the maintenance closet and managed to reconnect them somehow. We hooked them up to our battery and the battery of one of the maintenance trucks, waited about 10 minutes, and the Suburban started right up! I have to say this – the guys there at the resort were awesome. They went out of their way to help get us started, spending over half an hour locating cables for us and then making sure we got started. We found out the temperature had dipped to -20 Celsius that night – which translates into -4 Fahrenheit. No wonder the Suburban wouldn’t start! There was hoarfrost on everything. It was a beautiful, sunny, cold day. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel THAT cold. It’s very dry there.

We made it to the hot springs and bought day passes so we could go home for lunch, and come back that evening for another round of soaking. The hot springs are the largest odorless hot springs in Canada. There are 3 pools. One is the hot pool with a temperature of about 100 Fahrenheit. It’s almost the size of an Olympic swimming pool, but only about 4 feet deep at its deepest. Then there is the cool pool – a bit warmer than a normal swimming pool. It is Olympic-sized with a maximum depth of 5 feet. Then there is a diving pool that is normal swimming pool warmth and 10 feet deep with high and low dives. It’s about 1/3 the size of an Olympic pool. A day pass cost us, with a discount for staying at the villas, $8.75 CDN, which is about $7 US, per adult. Olivia was about $5.00 and Tyler was free. The steam rising off the water made it impossible to see more than 4 or 5 feet away until a breeze would come along and blow it clear. The steam droplets would cling to your hair and freeze, making it look like we had white feathers in our hair like a feather boa. It was pretty funny to see these strands of hair sticking up coated with hoarfrost on everyone. When we went back that night, the effect was even more dramatic. I had my hair in a ponytail, and I got tons of comments from other people in the pool about how amazing my hair looked in back with all the frost I had on it. It probably coated my hair in a layer about half an inch thick. We had a blast in the hot springs. We went back and forth between the pools, which was exhilarating. After our morning session, we went back for lunch and a nap – the springs relax you so much you just can’t help but take a nap. We went back about 5:30 PM and stayed until 8:30, then came back for soup before bed. The guys were worried about the Suburban dying again, so at 2 AM Ryan got up and started it and let it run a bit, then at 5 Tom got up and did the same (though he had gotten up at 2 as well). It started every time with no problem, even though it had gotten down to -22C/-8F that night. The staff at the resort stopped by to make sure it had started, which was so thoughtful!

At 9:30 AM on Sunday, we took in the spectacular Sunday buffet at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort restaurant. It was amazing, with made-to-order omelets, made-to-order pasta dishes, the usual array of eggs benedict, sausages, bacon, salads, fresh fruits, meats, fish, cheeses, breads, pastries, and a dizzying array of desserts, coffee, tea, and any kind of juice you wanted. This feast cost us about $14 US for adults, $8 for Olivia, and Tyler was free again. After breakfast, we packed up the Suburban, checked-out, and returned to Sandpoint, arriving back home in just under 4 hours.

It was a terrific weekend, a great time with the kids, super relaxing, and tough to see come to an end. We have decided that we want to spend next Thanksgiving week up there and rent one additional small side for Tommy and his family, take Jonathan along, of course, and just get away for an entire week together. It should be awesome!

Thankful

Thanksgiving was great.  Everyone was here; Tommy and his wife, Shannon and their girls, Sydney and Alyssa, Shana and her husband, Ryan, and their kids, Olivia and Tyler, and Jonathan and his roommate, Steve.  We had plenty of food (two turkeys!), lots of fun being together (no arguments or hurt feelings), lots of games (Xbox 360 and good old dominoes), football (Madden 2006, college, and NFL), and good weather.  It was great.  Hope you can all say the same thing about your holiday!

Addicted

I officially have no life.  Either that or I am addicted to my computers.  Probably the latter.  So, why am I saying this?  I’m sitting here with no good reason not to go to the gym this morning, and all I want to do is check my email, blog, read other blogs, check my email, read news online, check my email, read blogs….  Pretty sad, isn’t it?  Why aren’t I in the other room packing my gym bag?  It’s only about 24 degrees outside, the wind is blowing, it’s snowing…. Sounds like perfect stay-at-home weather, doesn’t it?  At least until it gets light out and I have to go somewhere – i.e. work.  Ugh.

Cat's Claw

Well, I did it.  I took Ali, the cat, to the vet yesterday to have her back claws removed.  She’s been declawed in the front since she was a kitten, but had her back claws.  Unfortunately, her relentless scratching, resulting in big, ugly, bloody sores on her neck, has forced my hand.  It was with a heavy heart that I stuffed her into her carrier and carted her off to Dr. Stoll’s office.  She knew she was in for it the moment I walked down the hall.  Cats do have a sixth sense; I’m convinced of it.  She had been head-butting me and hanging around me all morning, begging for food; she’d been without since 8PM the previous night in anticipation of her surgery.  I was talking to her, getting ready for work, and she was just sitting on the divider next to the counter.  I no sooner put my top on and walked down the hall, when she bolted for the space under my headboard in which she likes to hide.  I hadn’t even gotten the carrier yet!  She knew!  I had to lure her out with a freshly opened packet of food.  I felt so mean.  Naturally, I snatched her and stuffed her, fighting all the way, into the carrier.  She spent the drive into town shooting me dirty looks, as if to say “you mean, nasty, lying person!  I trusted you!”  No sooner did I open the door to Dr. Stoll’s office when she let out a low, begging moan, a sound reserved solely for visits to the vet’s office.  Nope, she was not a happy camper.  

Dr. Stoll’s wife, Heidi, called me about 4PM to say all had gone well, she had awakened fine, but he had given her extra pain meds (that makes me SAD) so wanted to keep her overnight.  I am picking her up this morning.  She’s going to be so mad at me.  Fortunately, Jonathan will be home around noon today, so he can console her.  I’m sure she’ll be overjoyed to see him.  He hasn’t been home since school started.  Unfortunately, later today the house will be swarming with “strangers”, and Ali hates strangers, especially those under 4’ 6”.  Tommy, Shannon, and the grandkids, Sydney and Alyssa, will be here late this afternoon, which means Ali will likely dive into the tunnel under Jonathan’s waterbed and not emerge again until Saturday sometime, after all the guests have left.  It’s going to be a tough recovery for her.  At least she will never be able to disfigure herself again, and that’s a relief.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers (all 3 of you)!!!  I hope your holiday is filled with family, great food, warm memories, and God’s blessings.

Barbie Envy

OMG I want to be a kid again!  I just got an FAO Schwartz catalog (how I got on their mailing list is a mystery to me) and was browsing through it.  I totally want the Carolina Herrera Bride Barbie!  And I swear, my original 1960 vintage Barbie had a dress just like the one on the Stolen Magic Barbie – one of those ones that is really tight at the mid-calf then flares out like mad to the floor.  Ooooh so elegant swellegant!  C’mon!  I want one.  They’re only $150!!!

Now, can you imagine for real paying that much for a Barbie doll???  That is just insane!  The bride Barbie is beautiful and I really love the dress on the Stolen Magic doll, but I don’t love it $150 worth.  My Barbie was a bride too, with a blonde bubble hairdo.  My sister had one with a brown bubble hairdo (my sister is a brunette) and hers had a green formal dress.  We both had Ken dolls too.  Hers was blond, mine was brown-haired and a doctor when he wasn’t a groom in his tux.  I think hers had a tux too.  We had a Barbie car too – some sort of roadster that they could tool around in.  Barbies ruled.  I still have our Barbies and their cases.  One of our dogs bit my sister’s doll’s head so there are holes in it.  It may have been a cat, actually, come to think of it.  Anyway, some animal bit it and there are two small puncture holes in her head.  Otherwise they’re in great shape.  The wedding dress and formal are long gone, sad to say.  Oooohhh, on the very next page there is another doll with an even prettier dress, also one that’s tight at mid-calf and flared at the bottom, and it’s only $35!!!    Now that’s more like it.  Sigh… I wish I was a little girl again.  Maybe I need to buy one of these for my granddaughter….  I could play with her.  ;)

I love Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just three days away.  It’s my favorite holiday for a lot of reasons.  It was my mom’s favorite too, and I think I understand why.  There is no gift-giving, and that fact, in and of itself, makes it a far superior holiday to Christmas.  Christmas has just become so much about buying gifts (and going into debt) and so much not about the birth of Christ, that it makes me sad.  Christmas is also Tom’s busiest time of the year.  He frequently has to work until 10 PM on Christmas Eve and then is back at it the day after Christmas, usually as busy as he was in the days leading up to it.  It has turned him into a Grinch, which he acknowledges and dislikes about himself.  Christmas has always been his favorite time of year until working for FedEx changed that.  But Thanksgiving is great.  We have all the kids and their families home.  This year, Jonathan’s roommate will be coming with him.  We usually have way too much food, which is fun.  I love to cook, and Thanksgiving gives me a great excuse to cook like mad.  For years, my brother and his family would come from the west side of Washington State, which was awesome.  Now that he lives in Medford, OR, it’s too far for him to come.  That makes me sad.  I used to look so forward to seeing him for this holiday.  Despite that, it’s still a great holiday. It was the last holiday my mom celebrated before she died (thirty years ago this year) so it has always been a bit more meaningful because of that. One of the last snapshots I have of her is of her and my stepdad at the kitchen sink, cleaning the turkey carcass that Thanksgiving in 1975.  I called her name and she turned and looked at me with a big smile on her face and I snapped the photo.  I love that shot.  Who could have guessed that less than two weeks later she’d be dead?  So, yeah, I love Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to it this year.  I’m making two smaller turkeys instead of one big one.  I usually make a 25 pounder, but I’ve come to believe that you really don’t get that much more meat on a 25 pound bird than the amount you get on, say, an 18 pound bird.  So, I bought a 13 pound turkey and a 14 pound turkey. They’ll cook faster, I can make two kinds of stuffing, and we will have four drumsticks and a lot of breast meat.  It should be great.  I’m making the stuffings, yams with marshmallows, and a pear-cranberry crisp I make every year.  Shana is making veggies and mashed potatoes and bringing appetizers and rolls, while Shannon is bringing desserts and fruit salad.  We should have plenty to eat and have plenty of leftovers as well.  I’m taking Wednesday off to start cooking (I’m making my yams from fresh baked yams instead of from canned ones) and then Friday I’m watching my grandkids so Shana can brave the crowds and take advantage of all the insane sales the day after Thanksgiving.  I think it will be a great holiday – lots of football, noise, food, and love.  Thank you, Lord, for this time to share with our loved ones.  We are truly blessed!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition Comes to Sandpoint

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is in Sandpoint. Everyone is in a tizzy about it. The family is very deserving. The mother died about 18 months ago, leaving twin third graders behind. Her brother stepped in to raise the kids. They’ve been living in a berm house (pretty much a basement with a roof on it) just outside of town. Now they get a brand new 3,000 square foot house (twice the size of MY house!) Here’s a link to the article about it:

http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/articles/2005/11/15/news/news01.txt.

Here’s what the Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce website has to say:
Sandpoint welcomes Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to town!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the popular ABC show that turns a run-down house into a fabulous home for a deserving family, has chosen a Sandpoint, Idaho family, the Heberts at 3550 Baldy Mountain Road in Sandpoint.

Eric, Kyler and Keeley Hebert got the surprise knock on the door on Saturday, Nov. 12, beginning the one-week clock to build the family a new home.

The story: Eric Hebert is raising his niece and nephew, twins Kyler and Keeley, whose mother, Francine Hebert, died in April 2004. They have been living in an underground “berm house,” basically a daylight basement with a roof for the past 19 months that often felt more like a dungeon. See more on the local family picked for the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in this Daily Bee story or the News Release dated November 12. A local contractor, Skip Pucci, helped gather local volunteers from the construction industry to join Sullivan Homes of Spokane in building the home. Learn more about the amazing volunteer effort in this Daily Bee story

You can volunteer! Want to help make a dream come true for the Hebert family? It’s a massive undertaking to build a custom home in only a week and volunteers are still being recruited for everything from labor on the work site to helping feed the crews. Click for the Selkirk Association of Realtors website, with detailed volunteer information.

Spectators are invited to come join the fun and excitement. Watch the process beginning Monday, Nov. 14 through Saturday, Nov. 19, when the family comes home. Spectators may not drive to the site, but are invited to ride a shuttle anytime from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Transportation is provided from the old Louisiana-Pacific mill site at Larch and Boyer.

Please note: When the viewing area is full, shuttles will stop running to the site until enough people have left to resume the shuttle. Please be patient and do not try to access the site on your own. Roads will be blocked, and security will be in place.

The incredible timeline:
• Saturday, November 12: “Surprise Door Knock.” The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew led by Ty Pennington, team leader and carpenter, arrives and surprises the Hebert family at their home on Baldy Mountain Road. The family leaves for vacation in the Bahamas, and the construction work begins.
• Monday, November 14 to Saturday, November, 19: Public is invited to watch from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. as crews work around the clock to build a 3,000-square-foot home in time for the family’s return. Demolition is on Monday, beginning five intense days of work.
• Saturday, November 19: The Hebert family returns to a crowd of friends, family, neighbors and well-wishers gathered to watch the final reveal marked by Ty Pennington’s command, “Driver, move that bus!”
The lead builder is Sullivan Homes of Spokane. Check the Sullivan Homes website for daily progress reports.

More local news coverage: Check this story from KXLY Channel 4: Sandpoint, Idaho family to receive “Extreme Makeover.” Click for story.


So, this is a big deal for Sandpoint. It will be interesting to see the show when it airs in 2006.

Pet Peeves - A Rant

I don’t have many pet peeves, but the ones I do have… well, they really drive me nuts. I hate to admit that because they are probably pretty petty (oh, that looks so funny on the screen – pretty petty, pretty petty, pretty petty). Then again, isn’t that the nature of a pet peeve? It’s petty. I wondered, so I looked up the definition from answers.com. Here’s what it says:

• pet peeve n. Informal.
  Something about which one frequently complains; a particular personal vexation.

So, there you go. “Something about which one frequently complains.” Most things we complain about are pretty petty, and probably pretty much outside our realm of control. I can’t stop people from saying “I could care less”, when they mean they could not care less, no matter how often I correct said offenders. Pretty petty. But when I hear it, it’s like fingernails on a blackboard. (Do kids today understand that metaphor, what with whiteboards blanketing classroom walls these days? I doubt it.)

Other pet peeves of mine are equally as unimportant in the grand scheme of things. For example, it makes me crazy that more and more often I find grammatical and typographical errors in newspapers and magazines, even those of high regard. Where have all the proofreaders gone? Back in the “old days”, when I was in advertising and did camera ready newspaper ads and copywriting for businesses in Colorado Springs, real people actually proofread every article. We got proofs of our ads so we could make sure there were no errors. The people in these positions were educated. They knew the difference between lead and led. They knew that, though lead could be pronounced “led”, it didn’t mean the same thing as led and knew which version of the word should be used. Though a computer may know how to spell each word, even with so-called grammar checking turned on, many grammatical errors go undetected. As a result, we have newspaper articles talking about the children being “lead to safety.” As I typed that in MS Word, Word did not even put a green underline under that phrase because “lead” to safety and “led” to safety are both proper phrases, grammatically speaking. Word cannot look at the total context of the phrase and determine which version of the word should be used. Sadly, in these days of waning circulation, newspapers are making cuts right and left. Apparently, one major cut has been in the proofreading department. They are relying on word processors to catch spelling and grammar errors instead of humans. The result is far too many mistakes, even in headlines. Every time I see one in the Spokane paper, I want to send them an email asking them “what were you thinking?!” Another source of spelling and grammar errors is the scroll on the bottom of the cable news channels. The errors are laughable sometimes – and sad. Too many people simply cannot spell and don’t know proper grammar.

Fewer and less – there is less fat in something and there are fewer calories. Why does packaging continually shout at us from the grocery store aisles “Less Fat, Calories, Carbs”??? It’s fewer, people. (Word thinks it’s should be its…see how dumb it is? And this is what publications rely on for grammar checking?) We are talking about multiple things that can be counted, and the word is fewer, not less! Aaarrggghh! No wonder one of my favorite books is Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I’m definitely a grammar nazi, or snob. It’s sad.

Tailgaters, red light runners, non-signalers – those are my driving pet peeves. I really hate tailgaters. More often than not, they are teenage girls who are either talking on their cell phones, have a car full of other teenage girls, or are fiddling with their radios. They scare me. They are usually so distracted; I know there is no way on earth they would be able to stop in time if I had to come to a sudden stop. Just last night, on the way home from work, I had one on my tail. She was so close to me I could barely see her headlights, and we were traveling at 45 mph. I stepped on my brakes multiple times to try to get the message across to her. No reaction. Finally, I slowed to 25, drove at that speed for about 500 feet, then stepped on the brakes two or three times, and finally saw her hand go up as if to say “oh, okay, sorry” as she backed off. She still was following much too closely – about two car lengths instead of the four she should have been behind me by – but it was an improvement. When she finally turned off onto one of the side streets, she practically did so as if on two wheels. I hate to generalize, but my experience has been that teenage girls tailgate much more often than teenage boys. My own daughter was a chronic tailgater. She eventually had an accident as a result of it. She rear-ended a pickup truck because she was following too closely and couldn’t stop in time when he had to step on his brakes to avoid a motorhome who cut him off. She didn’t damage his truck, but she did about a thousand dollars in damage to her car. She was always fiddling with her radio, checking her makeup, or something other than paying attention to the distance between herself and the car ahead of her. She’s an adult now and no longer tailgates.

Red light runners are just plain dangerous. When we were in Spokane last weekend, we were at a stop light on Division, a major arterial. (Spokane is probably the nation’s capital for red light runners. It’s habitual there.) I could see the light had turned red for the cross street, meaning ours was about to turn green. Sure enough, here comes this small pickup truck from our left. He didn’t even hesitate. He floored it and flew through the intersection, through a blatantly red light. Thankfully, the left turn signals had not yet changed to green and no accident occurred, but it really was a miracle. I so wanted to call the cops on this guy. Too bad I was in the middle lane of 3 lanes or I might have followed him, gotten his license plate number, and phoned it in. Too many accidents have occurred in Spokane as a result of red light runners, and too many innocent people have died. These guys need to be taken off the road permanently.

Tom had an incident a couple of weeks ago that was really scary. He was in a line of cars going south on Highway 95 (the major north-south highway in Idaho). The light had just gone from red to green and it was taking the line of about 5 cars a few seconds to get moving. From behind him he sees this car flying up on him. The car moves into the right turn lane as if it is going to turn onto the cross street. Instead, the car punches it, flies through the intersection on the right of the line of at least 5 cars (this is a two lane highway), onto the shoulder alongside the front couple of cars, and then shoots out onto the highway in front of the front car. Where are the cops when you really need them? Maneuvers like that cause horrible accidents. Someone seeing this guy coming up on their right might swerve to avoid him, especially a young, inexperienced driver, and find themselves in oncoming traffic, causing a head-on collision and probably a multi-car pileup. Just such a move caused a deadly accident a couple of years ago not too far from where this idiot pulled his stunt. It’s scary. Tom has to drive this stretch of road 4 times a day.

Non-signalers are just plain annoying. You sit at a crossroad, or parking lot exit, waiting and waiting to cross the street or turn onto the street, and car after car after car either turns into the parking lot or onto the street you’re on, without signaling. Every time that happens, it’s a missed opportunity for you to actually get out onto the street, an opportunity you could have taken advantage of had the other car simply signaled their intention to turn. Either people simply are too lazy too flick the little signal activator in their cars, or there are a lot of cars with broken turn signals out there! I happen to live close to an intersection that is extremely busy and have to utilize it several times a week. In one direction, there are stop signs. In the other direction, there are none. You have to wait for a break in traffic so you can dart out onto the very busy street to continue your travel. Those breaks are few and far between. At least half the time, cars turning onto the side street from the busy one do not signal. It makes me crazy. Tom has to contend with this intersection about 4 times a day. He usually points to the front of their car as they drive by him as if to say “hey, your signal is broken.” The offending driver usually looks at him with an expression that says “what?” Sometimes they will even slow down and open their window to ask what he wants. He loves that. He’ll say “your turn signal is broken.” They’ll usually respond by saying “no it’s not.” He’ll gleefully respond by saying “well, then why didn’t you use it?!” The offender usually drives off shaking their head, assuming he’s just insane. I wonder if it changes their behavior at all.

Bloggers who don’t blog. Okay, that’s me. I have been really bad at updating lately. I’ve been super busy at work and at home for the past few weeks and blogging has taken a back seat. I’m going to try to remedy that. So stay tuned.

Enough ranting for one morning.

Whitworth Parents' Weekend 2005

Whitworth Parents’ Weekend 2005 was great! Only one thing was not great – the Harrisons were not there. Since Nathan was off in the UK on the British Isles Study Tour, it didn’t really make sense for them to come. I sure did miss them. This year, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Last year we sat in cold, cold cloudy, dreary weather to watch the football game. This year, the game took place in perfect fall football weather – sunny and crisp, the leaves on the trees surrounding us in varying stages of their autumn color change. Whitworth smoked their opponent, Menlo, 48 to 10 (it was 48 to 3 until the final moments). Jonathan was on the field taking photos for the Whitworthian the entire time, so we didn’t get to sit with him, but it was fun watching him with his photojournalism professor from last spring, discussing ways to get the best shots, taking photos, and just being a student. His professor is the photo advisor for the newspaper and yearbook photographers this year. He is working with the kids to help improve the quality of photos going into both publications. Jonathan really likes him and appreciates his help and criticism. Kirk let Jonathan use his two digital SLR cameras during the game, which was really exciting for Jonathan. One of his photos did make the paper, and can be seen here (click). Some of them could well end up in the yearbook as well, since the paper and the yearbook share the photographic staff.

Aside from the game, the other highlights of Parents’ Weekend were the mini-college we took and the play we saw. The mini-college class was taught by Dr. Forrest Baird. The class was on epistemologies – “how do we know what we know?” I learned more in that 90 minute class than I could possibly have imagined! He is an enthusiastic professor, very much “in love” with his subject matter. He is funny, exuberant, and delightful. The 90 minute session flew by, and ended much too quickly. He had a ton of information we didn’t have time to cover, to my dismay. I strongly encourage every student at Whitworth to take as many classes from this guy as you can! He put most every professor I had in college to shame. I emailed him the following week and told him just how much we enjoyed his class. He responded warmly and enthusiastically to my email. We exchanged a couple more about our children, educational “roots” (we both went to college in Santa Barbara, CA just a year or so apart, although he went to Westmont College and I went to UCSB), and the frustrations that accompany parenting a college student who continually underperforms. Turns out one of his daughters graduated with the President’s Award for maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout her college career at the same time his other daughter was suspended for poor academic performance. Daughter #2 did get her act together and graduate on time with a decent GPA and went on to enroll in graduate school at Gonzaga with a desire to teach inner city kids in service to Christ. That was heartening to hear. As frustrated as I get with Jonathan, I need to remember, God is in control and He will work things out the way He intends them to work out. Easier said than done. It is so hard to relinquish the control we think we have to God, who is in control anyway, despite what we may think. Life would be so much less stressful if we would just remember that He is in control and stop worrying about every little thing. Why are we so stupid? Why do we insist on worrying and making ourselves sick and stressed out when doing so won’t change a doggone thing? We humans are such odd creatures.

The other highlight of the weekend was the play. The Whitworth theater students performed Our Town, the well known and well loved play by Thornton Wilder. I made Tom and Jonathan go to the play – and sit through the entire thing. They actually both laughed at all the right places, seemed sad at the right times, and seemed to enjoy it, despite their protestations to the contrary. I had seen Our Town performed when I was in college, with John Ritter as George and Sian Barbara Allen as Emily. I had forgotten they were the stars of that play until we sat down in the theater. Then, the scene with the ladders, the sparse set, and the pantomiming the actors engage in, immediately brought the memory back to me. I can still see John and Sian on those ladders talking to one another as if from their respective bedroom windows. Our Town is an interesting play in that there are very few props, virtually no costume changes, almost no set whatsoever, and the actors pantomime their actions. In description, it sounds like a very odd, boring play. On the contrary, the lack of props and the pantomiming make you focus on the characters, what they are saying, how they interact with one another, and the emotions they are expressing. It’s a powerful play with a powerful message – life is short, enjoy it, don’t take it and others for granted, pay attention to what is important – love and family. It was very well done by the Whitworth students, and a delightful end to a spectacular day. The following morning we had brunch with Jonathan, did a bit of shopping, said our goodbyes, and headed home, glad to have seen him, glad he’s at Whitworth with their incredible staff, and glad he is enjoying this year so much. It was a great weekend, but we did miss our friends, Tom, JoAnn, Lynsey, and Nathan.

To blog or not to blog

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to blog.  Is it pure vanity?  Is it because I imagine people are reading it and just not commenting?  I have a stat counter on my page that shows the bitter truth – I don’t have many readers.  I think I might have two or three die hard “fans”; thank you JoAnn, Lynsey, and Shaun.  I got into this blogging thing after getting hooked on Nathan’s blog.  He has over 23,000 hits!  How did his blog become so popular?  Is it simply that he has a ton of friends who read his informative and interesting posts regularly?  Is it because he’s young, and what he writes about is way more interesting than what a 50 year old library technology person writes about?  Is it because my generation really doesn’t, for the most part, “get” blogs, so my audience is limited as a result?  Maybe.  It is a bit discouraging, though, to write something knowing very few people will read it – or care that you wrote it.  I guess that is ego, isn’t it?  If I were approaching this blog as a kind of journal, it wouldn’t matter if anyone read it.  I would be writing for my own satisfaction, not for an audience.  But to be effective as a journal, I would have to write a lot of really personal stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily want to be read by anyone other than myself.  So the journal aspect is out.  If not a journal, then what?  Obviously, I am writing for an audience, hence my dismay at the lack of one.  I must admit, having very limited readership does make updating a lower priority.  I could better communicate with the three people who read my blog via email on a much more personal level and get immediate feedback from them.  This is a dilemma.  To blog or not to blog.  That is the question.  I suppose, until I feel very strongly one way or the other, I’ll maintain the status quo, which is to continue posting on an irregular schedule.  I should probably pray about this and about why I’m doing this and see if God has any insights for me.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Server unavailable

I am aggravated. I wrote an entire post last week, went to publish it, and Blogger was down. I didn't have time to rewrite it and republish it later, so it's lost forever. In fact, I don't even remember what it was about. Pathetic.

Today is a holiday. The library is closed. It's a gorgeous fall day and where am I? In front of my laptop doing work. I have switches and a new firewall to configure and it's not often I get days like this - uninterrupted by coworkers or patrons or family members. Also, if I do get the new firewall configured, I can go install it today without worrying about taking down the library network. I will take a day off later this month to make up for the missed day off. It is rather glorious outside. The sun is out, the trees are spectacular - and they've just gotten started changing colors. The maples are well on their way, but the aspens at this elevation are just starting to change. I love looking out the sliding glass door at the brilliant golds that clothe the birches and maples in the yards around mine. It has always intrigued me how the look of the sunlight actually changes this time of year. It is obviously more golden than during the rest of the year. I am sure it has to do with the angle of the sun at our latitude and longitude, but that's all so scientific. I prefer just wallowing in the golden beauty of the rays as if swimming in a sea of molten gold. The air is crisp with the smell of change. Cheeks glow like crunchy apples, made even sweeter by the brisk fall temperatures. There is a sense of anticipation, of uncertainty, a surety that tomorrow will be different. I do love fall.

Yesterday we went to Greenbluff, the farming community just north of Spokane, for the apple festival. Farms in the area invite people in to pick apples, grapes, and pumpkins, partake in harvest celebrations, take the children on a hayride, make their way through a corn maze, and munch on apples dripping with caramel or fresh apple pie a la mode smothered in steaming cinnamon sauce. I enthusiastically took them up on the latter offer, although my piece of pie was apple huckleberry. It was wonderful! The weather could not have been better. The grandkids had a ball. And to top off the perfect day, Jonathan called and invited us to visit him briefly at his dorm. The fact that he needed some cash to put value on his laundry card, I'm sure, had nothing to do with asking us to stop by. We got to see his room, now decorated with posters and surprisingly clean and fresh smelling. He and his roommates were having a "pre-frosh" stay with them that night. It was Fall Preview Weekend at Whitworth so the campus was crawling with prospective students and their parents being escorted about campus by glib, personable student representatives. They should have asked me my opinion. I would have given Whitworth a glowing recommendation. We watched some kids play Ultimate Frisbee. They were in the power league, according to Jonathan - the kids who are really, really good. Jonathan plays in the less demanding challenge league. He looks good, looks like he is happy at school, looks like he belongs there. In two weeks we will be back for Parents' Weekend. I can hardly wait.

So, back to work. I need to get this stuff configured. I wish I understand better some aspects of networking. I hate it that I have to learn everything by the seat of my pants. I wish I could take some classes. I really wish I could go back to college. If I lived in Spokane, I would totally be doing Whitworth in the Evenings, their program for working adults who want to get their degree. I'd kill for that opportunity. For now, it's just read the book or documentation and try to learn on my own. Wish me luck

Why eat breakfast?

It’s raining and I am not sad about that.  It seems appropriate.  It hasn’t rained in quite a while, and we can really use the precipitation.  If it keeps up for any length of time, well, I won’t like that, but for today, it’s a nice change of pace.  Besides, it is fall now, and time for the weather to change.  So it has.

Jonathan called last night.  It’s nice when he calls us just to chat.  That doesn’t happen too often.  His once busy social life seems to have subsided somewhat.  He does seem to be doing better scholastically this year.  He is also really getting into being a photographer.  He takes his cameras (yes, plural – his digital and his (my) film camera) with him everywhere, he says.  He has assignments for the school paper, The Whitworthian, as well as for his photography class, so he needs to be prepared at all times.  It has already paid off.  One of the paper assignments was to shoot students testing out the proposed new furniture for the dorms.  Apparently, as simple an assignment as that sounds like, it means hanging around the place this new furniture is sitting for testing for who knows how long until someone comes along to test it out.  On the other hand, it means making sure you have your camera with you at all times so when you happen to see someone testing the furniture out at some random hour, you can take the picture, which is what happened to Jonathan.  He was in the vicinity of this furniture and students were sitting on it, so he got the shot.  Yay!

I am not doing very well in the weight loss/exercise department.  I really want to start working out consistently again, but our gym still has no showers and I hate showering at Shana’s house.  At the gym, I have a locker with shampoo, conditioner, razors, soap, hair dryer, and all that stuff – pretty much a duplication of what I have at home.  When I go to Shana’s to shower after working out, I have to lug all that stuff with me.  It’s just a nuisance.  I’d rather just shower at home, so I don’t go work out.  I’m such a slacker!  I will never lose weight at this rate.  I’ve been trying to be really diligent about what I eat too, and it just doesn’t seem to be making any difference at all.  In fact, I feel like I’ve gained weight, not lost it.  I have been doing something I never do – eating breakfast – because it’s supposed to be so good for you and help you lose weight.  Well, I think it’s just adding more calories to my day that weren’t there before.  I eat really healthy, high fiber cereal (either Weight Watchers or Kashi Go-Lean) with skim milk, which should be a great breakfast, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.  I’m thinking of just skipping breakfast again and maybe eating that for lunch instead (I need the fiber), maybe eating a Lean Cuisine for dinner with a salad instead of whatever I make for Tom.  It’s just such a struggle every single day and I don’t feel like I’m making any progress whatsoever.  Frustrating.

JoAnn has a blog

My friend, JoAnn, has a blog now (see http://imusttellyou.blogspot.com).  It’s great!  It’s her place to rant on an array of topics.  Both her posts have made me ask, “am I guilty of this?”  Both times I have had to admit “at times, yes, I am.”   Thanks a lot, JoAnn. ;)  Seriously, I do thank her for making me stop to consider my own behavior.  How often do we really take a step back and look at ourselves – and I don’t just mean the reflection in the mirror that is way fatter and older and grayer than we think it should be.  How often do we look at our behavior toward others, especially family, at our reactions toward those with whom we disagree, at our attitudes, at the snide comments we mutter under our breath when we are treated poorly?  And especially, how often do we look at those things in light of Christ’s example to us?  Ahhhhhh…. That changes everything, doesn’t it?  While we might react in a way the world sees as perfectly justified, even expected, far too often it is in a way diametrically opposed to the way Christ has demonstrated we should react.  Those darned spears again….  My, aren’t we good at throwing them, just like Saul was.  So, JoAnn, really, thank you for making me think.

Friday fever and the UK is a go!

The weekend is here!!!! Well, in 30 minutes it will be. Yippee! So, here is the best news of all.....

(drum roll please)....

We got our timeshare exchanges for the UK!!!!!

We get a week in the Highlands and a week in Staffordshire, about 110 miles from London! We have a 2 bedroom, 2 bath cottage in both places too! They are off the beaten path in that they are not right in any big city, but they are in the UK and it's only costing $150 each week! The resort in the Highlands is in Kenmore, right on Loch Tay. It's called The Kenmore Club. It looks so cool! It's on the grounds of Castle Taymouth. The other is called Wychnor Park Country Club and is in Barton-under-Needwood, not far from Stratford-on-Avon (you know, Shakespeare and all that). Both resorts look gorgeous. Both are NOT in the US! Now, to make everyone even more jealous, the owner of a company for which I do consulting - and that I constantly forget to bill for my work - decided the best way to pay me for my work is to buy our 3 tickets to Europe!!! So, on May 13, 2006, Tom, Jonathan, and I, will be winging our way toward Edinburgh, Scotland for the first leg of our trip to the United Kingdom and I can hardly believe it! Isn't that cool?!?!?!

Now I just need to figure out what all we want to/should see, how we're going to get to those sights, if we are going to try to get to Paris for a couple of days, and all that jazz. Input is greatly appreciated from those who have visited England and/or Scotland.

Today has been a great day. I was just told by our finance person that I have $20,000 left in my budget to spend - by Tuesday!! I asked her to double check - which she had done three times before she told me the great news. Sooooooo, I just ordered another server, a rack for my four servers, and some other hardware I need and I still have money left. If I don't spend it, I lose it... so no time to waste! I'm on a buying spree! :) See ya... I have to go buy stuff.

It's Tuesday!

One guess where I'm headed.... Please snow soon, please snow soon! (I can't believe I'm actually saying that!)

We saw Jonathan for 90 whole minutes last Sunday. It was nice to see him, nice to hear about all his escapades, social interactions, see his room (a huge improvement over last year, btw - photos to come), and just be with him, but he was anxious to get back in time to hook up with friends before they made plans for the day, so we just had breakfast at Shari's (note to Harrisons - the same one we met at a year ago, which was bittersweet), stopped in at Pier 1 Imports briefly, then took him back to school. It was not long enough. I think I'll just plan on not seeing him until Parents' Weekend when he will have to set aside the weekend for us. Maybe he'll appreciate us more after not seeing us for over a month.

He is doing well, though. He is also doing the unthinkable - losing weight in college! His tightest jeans are now loose on him. Today he called me, though, and he's sick. He has a nasty sounding cold. I don't know why he always seems to get sick so often. Maybe it's college living. He surely doesn't eat well or get enough sleep, which contributes to his lack of resistance I'm sure. He got some Dayquil so he should be able to attend classes. He has been very good about never missing Calc III and Computer Science. He has missed Interpersonal Communications once - says it's a dumb class - so it would not surprise me to learn he missed it tomorrow. We'll see.

Work is still crazy. I'm just procrastinating like mad on setting up my new servers. I have to start tomorrow. It's just crazy.

Now, off to mow....

If I'm mowing, this must be Friday (or Tuesday)

The title is a thinly veiled reference to a comedy from 1969 called If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.  It is a fun little film about a group of tourists trekking about Europe on a tour bus, and the adventures they experience in each of their many tour stops.  Anyway, I am convinced my neighbors set their calendars by my mowing schedule.  I mow the lawn every Tuesday and Friday without fail, unless it’s raining.  I mow after work, which means I’m out there mowing from about 6 PM until 7 PM all summer (Jonathan is usually mowing the backyard while I mow the front during the summer).  Once he goes off to school, the days get shorter, so I leave work early so that I can do both front and backyard before it gets dark, putting me outside from about 5 PM until 7:15 PM or so.  My neighbors on one side are retired, the ones on the other side are schoolteachers, so both of them are home all summer.  I’m sure they lose track of which day of the week it is during the summer.  You know how it is when you’re on vacation and don’t have the workweek to keep you on schedule – you often have no idea which day of the week it is.  I am positive my neighbors rely on me all summer to indicate to them what day of the week it is.  “Oh, Gina’s mowing… must be Friday, because she was just mowing two days ago and that was Tuesday.”  My teacher neighbors always come home while I’m out front.  I swear I see them check their watches as they go by to make sure they are accurate.  After all, I am like clockwork!  So, if I’m mowing, it must be Friday – or Tuesday.  

While I’m mowing, I think of great things to write in my blog.  I also think of great things while I’m in the shower. Unfortunately, once I actually get around a computer, I completely forget the brilliant posts I wrote in my head.  That’s sort of how my novel writing works too.  I write amazing scenes in my head while I lay in bed at night.  They are so brilliant!  Come morning, I’m an imbecile!  I can’t remember one single sentence.  What is up with that?  I’m memorably challenged.  It’s so sad.

Yesterday was a pretty good day

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  After staff meeting on Tuesday, one of our staff members had a suggestion for changing our check-in process that I thought was a great idea.  Right now, we have this huge backlog of stuff to be checked in and shelved.  We are short-staffed right now, and to make matters worse, we have people on vacation that put in for their vacation long before we lost so many people, so we are way behind.  We are the third most heavily used library in Idaho – a huge thing considering we are one of the smaller communities in Idaho.  We have a patron base of about 30,000 in our district.  We have probably 17,000 active patrons (people who have checked something out at least once in the past three years), and we have an annual circulation of over 500,000.  That’s third behind Boise Public Library and Ada Community Library (the district that encompasses the area around Boise).  That puts us far ahead of large cities and counties like Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and even Coeur d’Alene, all communities much, much larger than ours.  The library district that serves Coeur d’Alene encompasses a county that is over 4 times the size of our district and yet we have a much higher circulation rate than they do.  Their circulation is spread over several branches, spreading the workload.  Our circulation takes place primarily in our main branch – probably 75% of it.  We have about 1500 patron visits each day in just the main branch!  So, the workload is heaviest in Sandpoint where we get back thousands of items each week that have to be checked in, cleaned, checked for damage, and re-shelved.  Okay, you’re probably bored to tears now.  Bear with me a bit longer.  

The normal process is that we check the items for damage, clean them, check them in, resensitize them (they have security strips that have to be sensitized and desensitized), put them on carts, and then re-shelve them.  The cleaning and checking process is time consuming.  That means hundreds and hundreds of items that have been returned sit on a table, waiting to be checked in, sometimes for up to 4 or 5 days after the patron returned them.  In many cases, that means patrons appear to have items that are overdue, even though they returned the items on time.  Having items overdue means they can’t use our new self-check machine.  Without adding more staff immediately, or pulling other staff away from their jobs and press them into service for hours every day to get these items checked in, how do we solve the problem?  Well, the suggestion was that we check everything in immediately, then clean, check for damage, resensitize, and shelve items.  If we make the goal getting things checked in as quickly as possible after they are returned, that solves a lot of problems.  Patrons are no longer inaccurately charged with overdues.  More patrons can use the self-checkout unit.  Since the person checking in is ONLY checking in, not also cleaning, checking for damage, etc., they will be less likely to make mistakes that result in items not actually getting checked in.  With two phases to checking in, the process actually goes a lot faster, it is less complicated, interruptions are less likely to result in mistakes, and more staff members can help out since less training is required for some phases.  So, I shared the suggestion with the circulation supervisor, who embraced it enthusiastically.  We implemented it yesterday and made amazing progress!  We actually got everything checked in by about 3 PM after starting at 10 AM.  I worked downstairs pretty much all day, checking in as much as I could, and then shelving DVDs.  I’m not “qualified” to do the cleaning and checking for damage because I don’t know all the procedures involved when you run across various forms of damage, missing parts, etc.  It would have taken longer to train me in that area than it was worth and I could shelve a whole lot of DVDs in the same amount of time. In fact, I managed to shelve every single DVD that had been checked in – probably 700 of them.  It felt great to accomplish so much!  I will probably help again today by checking in as much as I can, then shelving videotapes and/or books.  Some staff are a little skeptical about the new procedure, but most see how much it actually improves service to our patrons and are very excited about the change.  Sadly, we had another terrific staff person resign yesterday.  She had applied for our youth services librarian position and didn’t get it.  She had told supervisors that she needed more money or she couldn’t afford to continue her education (she is working toward a Masters in Library Science) and that if she didn’t get the YS job, she would probably have to resign.  Sadly, she did that yesterday, to my dismay. She really is a great staff person, a hard worker, bright, and provides excellent customer service.  Her departure will be felt.  That brings to four the number of circulation staff people we will lose in the next three weeks.  I don’t know how we will fill those positions in a timely fashion.  We are going to feel the loss for weeks and weeks.  We need to raise our starting pay or we will continue to lose good people.

Now, off to work.