Catching up
Like whoa, it's been forever since I've posted here. To be frank, not sure how often I'll blog in 2009, but I'll give it a shot...extremely long post ahead under the cuts...lol
- The big project at work I'm on went live with its first phase. Right now we're in support mode and I'm mentally gearing myself up to do the same thing for our US database. It's a bigger effort not only due to sheer transaction volume but to more tentacles reaching into the US database.
- On the home front, things have been great. Not sure what else to say, but hubby and I have a solid relationship where we support each other and let each other know daily how much we love each other. On a cynical side, some may think that saying 'I Love You' loses its meaning if said too much, but the meaning is real if the feeling is real. Mushy? Yeah, but it's all good mush!
- On the travel front, it had some potential, but wasn't as exciting compared to prior years. The best part was that we went on a Caribbean cruise with my sister-in-law and her hubby to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Friends and family joined us so we had a party of 10 on the cruise. It was tons of fun, but the dining experience wasn't as good as it's been in the past. The menu didn't knock our socks off like in prior cruising experiences and the quality was just...eh. Heck, we wanted to go back to the kitchen to teach them how to cook steak to proper doneness. Rare does not equate to medium rare. If I wanted to eat a hockey puck, I would've ordered one...thankyouverymuch. We were also a bit bummed that the wine selection wasn't as good as it was in the past. Guess it's a sign of the times where people go on cruises (well, at least a Carnival cruise) not necessarily for a fine dining experience, but for having an ok dining experience with the opportunity to eat as much as possible. Maybe I'm jaded because hubby and I love to cook and we cook a lot at home and just expect that when we dine out it would be just as good or better than what we could make ourselves. There was a bit of a tease that I would be going over to Europe for work, but that didn't materialize. I was quite bummed since the potential locations (London or Amsterdam) I enjoy and if I went to Amsterdam, hubby would've taken some time off to go there with me since he hasn't been there before. He's a huge Dutch masters fan and I know he'd enjoy the museums in Amsterdam.
- I missed my 20 year high school reunion, mostly because I made myself available to travel to Europe for work if needed. When I found out that wasn't going to happen, it was really too late to arrange making it to the event. Also, for some reason I just wasn't too excited about it. In seeing the pics of those that were there, it would've been nice to see some. Oh well...I'm catching up with these peeps via FaceBook.
- Oh yeah, I've become addicted to FaceBook - it's been a more viable tool to catch up with people compared to MySpace.
- On the work front, all is good for me. In a couple of months I'll celebrate my 10th year with my employer, and I truly plan on putting in 15 or so more years and retiring from my employer. They've been very good to me.
- On the neighborhood front, all's good. We continued to have many cookouts during the summer with friends from the neighborhood. Nobody moved and there was no drama.
- On the spiritual front, hubby and I continue to get more involved in church activities, which we both enjoy. People know that if help is needed, if no specialized skills are needed (like plumbing, electrical, etc.) if our calendar is open we're there. Early in the year I joined the women's bible study group, and it's been a great experience not only from a spiritual standpoint, but it's been great to get to know more women. A few weeks ago I was approached to become one of the bible study leaders, which took me by surprise. I told them to give me another year before I get involved at that level.
- With the two annual charity auctions that we attend, we were a bit modest in our purchases. For one we got a magnum of wine, a silver necklace/earring set and some kitchen toys and we bypassed the live auction since there wasn't anything we really wanted. For the other one we got some glass ornaments with a travel theme, a bottle of wine, a pink leather passport cover/luggage tag, some cool notecards, a bead necklace and a scarf at the silent auction. For the live auction, we did a 'fund a need' donation, which is a straight donation without a material item and I got a 7' artificial Christmas tree, complete with ornaments. The tree was a steal - I opened the bid at $100...and won. Honestly, the ornaments alone on the tree were worth almost $200. For the latter auction, hubby and I were the 'wine stewards' again where we grouped, valued and wrote a short description for the 100 bottles of wine that was donated for the silent auction.
On the work front for hubby, he unfortunately got laid off with his last day being Dec 26. Yeah, Merry Christmas, huh? He got the word on Dec 16th. It was strange as the director of his department had no idea layoffs were going to happen - 25% of the company was laid off. Performance was not part of the equation - it was a straight budgetary cut. The layoff was due to a serious F-up in the contract renewal with their biggest client. When you don't catch that a contract states that you are obligated to provide services, yet your customer isn't obligated AT ALL to pay for said services, that's a serious screwup. So, his former company is trying to fix this problem and in the meantime they laid off a large percentage of their workforce even though there wasn't a reduction in workload. Hubby was bummed because he really liked his co-workers and the company did a lot of charitable activities.
Right after Christmas we went to the Oregon coast for a few days to spend some time with family at the same place I wrote about last year. We went to a marine science center that had a touching pool...and yes, again I touched an anenome and again it touched me back! * heebie jeebies * We had some fun watching sea lions that took over a small pier defend their turf from younger males that wanted to get up on the pier. The house we stayed at had stairs that went down to the beach, and on our third day there we were walking along the beach and encountered...a dead sea lion. I pointed it out, but didn't venture near it while hubby and my bro-in-law did. Yeah, I didn't need to hear that the seagulls that were there were having a buffet on the deceased's face. Guess you didn't need to hear that either, huh? lol
When we came back from this mini-vacation, hubby hit the floor running in looking for a job. And...as of yesterday he got a job for the exact same salary! I'm quite excited because he had minimal downtime and since I'm the one that takes care of household expenses, it's a huge relief. He'll be working for a large company with a great reputation, which is a great thing. It all happend quite fast...he got a call last Tuesday morning to set up an interview, later that day he had a phone interview and afterwards they arranged to bring him in for an in-person interview on Wednesday morning. After his Wed interview (he knocked their socks off), they told him that there were two other candidates they will interview by phone that afternoon and will let him know. Well...he was offered the job yesterday and he gladly accepted.
It's been a whirlwind week and we truly feel blessed that we don't have to worry about this anymore. His first day will be Jan 26th (the beginning of February for them) so he's got a couple of weeks for some "honey-do's". It' too bad I don't have much of a list of "honey-do's" for him - the only ones I gave him were to write Thank You notes for Christmas presents and to install an overhead storage rack in the garage. He'll probably find some things to help out with at church since he doesn't like being idle.
So far 2009 has been a mixture of emotions from opposite ends of the spectrum. It started out with much anxiety and as of yesterday I am mostly relieved. I think last night was the first good night of sleep I've had since hubby was laid off. I still have a little bit of anxiety, but it's for others affected by recent flooding and those that we helped last year that are in danger for serious flooding again this year. Some of the damage has just been devastating and heartbreaking.
As for me in 2009, maybe this can be called a resolution, but I'm reading the 'Daily Walk' bible. It's set up so you read a little bit each day (with each 7th day as a day off) so you can complete it by the end of the calendar year. I find that as being quite manageable, as it's only around 5-8 pages per day and on each 7th I can use that as a catch up day if needed.
So...how YOU doin'? :)
- The big project at work I'm on went live with its first phase. Right now we're in support mode and I'm mentally gearing myself up to do the same thing for our US database. It's a bigger effort not only due to sheer transaction volume but to more tentacles reaching into the US database.
- On the home front, things have been great. Not sure what else to say, but hubby and I have a solid relationship where we support each other and let each other know daily how much we love each other. On a cynical side, some may think that saying 'I Love You' loses its meaning if said too much, but the meaning is real if the feeling is real. Mushy? Yeah, but it's all good mush!
- On the travel front, it had some potential, but wasn't as exciting compared to prior years. The best part was that we went on a Caribbean cruise with my sister-in-law and her hubby to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Friends and family joined us so we had a party of 10 on the cruise. It was tons of fun, but the dining experience wasn't as good as it's been in the past. The menu didn't knock our socks off like in prior cruising experiences and the quality was just...eh. Heck, we wanted to go back to the kitchen to teach them how to cook steak to proper doneness. Rare does not equate to medium rare. If I wanted to eat a hockey puck, I would've ordered one...thankyouverymuch. We were also a bit bummed that the wine selection wasn't as good as it was in the past. Guess it's a sign of the times where people go on cruises (well, at least a Carnival cruise) not necessarily for a fine dining experience, but for having an ok dining experience with the opportunity to eat as much as possible. Maybe I'm jaded because hubby and I love to cook and we cook a lot at home and just expect that when we dine out it would be just as good or better than what we could make ourselves. There was a bit of a tease that I would be going over to Europe for work, but that didn't materialize. I was quite bummed since the potential locations (London or Amsterdam) I enjoy and if I went to Amsterdam, hubby would've taken some time off to go there with me since he hasn't been there before. He's a huge Dutch masters fan and I know he'd enjoy the museums in Amsterdam.
- I missed my 20 year high school reunion, mostly because I made myself available to travel to Europe for work if needed. When I found out that wasn't going to happen, it was really too late to arrange making it to the event. Also, for some reason I just wasn't too excited about it. In seeing the pics of those that were there, it would've been nice to see some. Oh well...I'm catching up with these peeps via FaceBook.
- Oh yeah, I've become addicted to FaceBook - it's been a more viable tool to catch up with people compared to MySpace.
- On the work front, all is good for me. In a couple of months I'll celebrate my 10th year with my employer, and I truly plan on putting in 15 or so more years and retiring from my employer. They've been very good to me.
- On the neighborhood front, all's good. We continued to have many cookouts during the summer with friends from the neighborhood. Nobody moved and there was no drama.
- On the spiritual front, hubby and I continue to get more involved in church activities, which we both enjoy. People know that if help is needed, if no specialized skills are needed (like plumbing, electrical, etc.) if our calendar is open we're there. Early in the year I joined the women's bible study group, and it's been a great experience not only from a spiritual standpoint, but it's been great to get to know more women. A few weeks ago I was approached to become one of the bible study leaders, which took me by surprise. I told them to give me another year before I get involved at that level.
- With the two annual charity auctions that we attend, we were a bit modest in our purchases. For one we got a magnum of wine, a silver necklace/earring set and some kitchen toys and we bypassed the live auction since there wasn't anything we really wanted. For the other one we got some glass ornaments with a travel theme, a bottle of wine, a pink leather passport cover/luggage tag, some cool notecards, a bead necklace and a scarf at the silent auction. For the live auction, we did a 'fund a need' donation, which is a straight donation without a material item and I got a 7' artificial Christmas tree, complete with ornaments. The tree was a steal - I opened the bid at $100...and won. Honestly, the ornaments alone on the tree were worth almost $200. For the latter auction, hubby and I were the 'wine stewards' again where we grouped, valued and wrote a short description for the 100 bottles of wine that was donated for the silent auction.
On the work front for hubby, he unfortunately got laid off with his last day being Dec 26. Yeah, Merry Christmas, huh? He got the word on Dec 16th. It was strange as the director of his department had no idea layoffs were going to happen - 25% of the company was laid off. Performance was not part of the equation - it was a straight budgetary cut. The layoff was due to a serious F-up in the contract renewal with their biggest client. When you don't catch that a contract states that you are obligated to provide services, yet your customer isn't obligated AT ALL to pay for said services, that's a serious screwup. So, his former company is trying to fix this problem and in the meantime they laid off a large percentage of their workforce even though there wasn't a reduction in workload. Hubby was bummed because he really liked his co-workers and the company did a lot of charitable activities.
Right after Christmas we went to the Oregon coast for a few days to spend some time with family at the same place I wrote about last year. We went to a marine science center that had a touching pool...and yes, again I touched an anenome and again it touched me back! * heebie jeebies * We had some fun watching sea lions that took over a small pier defend their turf from younger males that wanted to get up on the pier. The house we stayed at had stairs that went down to the beach, and on our third day there we were walking along the beach and encountered...a dead sea lion. I pointed it out, but didn't venture near it while hubby and my bro-in-law did. Yeah, I didn't need to hear that the seagulls that were there were having a buffet on the deceased's face. Guess you didn't need to hear that either, huh? lol
When we came back from this mini-vacation, hubby hit the floor running in looking for a job. And...as of yesterday he got a job for the exact same salary! I'm quite excited because he had minimal downtime and since I'm the one that takes care of household expenses, it's a huge relief. He'll be working for a large company with a great reputation, which is a great thing. It all happend quite fast...he got a call last Tuesday morning to set up an interview, later that day he had a phone interview and afterwards they arranged to bring him in for an in-person interview on Wednesday morning. After his Wed interview (he knocked their socks off), they told him that there were two other candidates they will interview by phone that afternoon and will let him know. Well...he was offered the job yesterday and he gladly accepted.
It's been a whirlwind week and we truly feel blessed that we don't have to worry about this anymore. His first day will be Jan 26th (the beginning of February for them) so he's got a couple of weeks for some "honey-do's". It' too bad I don't have much of a list of "honey-do's" for him - the only ones I gave him were to write Thank You notes for Christmas presents and to install an overhead storage rack in the garage. He'll probably find some things to help out with at church since he doesn't like being idle.
So far 2009 has been a mixture of emotions from opposite ends of the spectrum. It started out with much anxiety and as of yesterday I am mostly relieved. I think last night was the first good night of sleep I've had since hubby was laid off. I still have a little bit of anxiety, but it's for others affected by recent flooding and those that we helped last year that are in danger for serious flooding again this year. Some of the damage has just been devastating and heartbreaking.
As for me in 2009, maybe this can be called a resolution, but I'm reading the 'Daily Walk' bible. It's set up so you read a little bit each day (with each 7th day as a day off) so you can complete it by the end of the calendar year. I find that as being quite manageable, as it's only around 5-8 pages per day and on each 7th I can use that as a catch up day if needed.
So...how YOU doin'? :)