I LOL'd at my desk after seeing this - and it reminded me that one of these days I am going to attempt to bread my cats because I think they deserve to be embarassed all over the interwebs.

Busy week - actually busy two weeks around here.  At the office, my team leader is on a welldeserved two week vacation, but trying to cover a third more work during our busy time means a lot of extra hours.  Combine that with me trying to take care of a lot of emergencies that I've gotten assigned because I'm the path of least resistance and it hasn't been pretty.

I'll confess that I have a bit of an attitude as well....I'm tired of  rules that seem to be created randomly, not written down, and only shared with a select few while the rest of us get blindsided.  I'm tired of watching people toss blame around and spend more time trying to get out of doing something than it would take to handle it.  And mostly, I'm tired of being appreciated by everyone in the place except my manager.  Things move slowly here, so it could still be another month or so before I hear about the job I applied for - but its becoming very clear that if I want to grow my career - I have to stretch myself and look elswhere in this organization.  Scary but necessary - at least I was smart enough to get the credentials (and make the contacts) that should help me do that.

Dad is not as sharp mentally as I'd like him to be.  I'm hoping that some of that is due to being taken care of for several months - that he didn't have to think, so he didn't.  He has started to drive me nuts with calls at work and my brother is going to once again reiterate that the only calls to our workplace should be true emergencies.    I think the idea is "If you are going to live in that house on your own,then you have to be able to handle day to day life on your own - your kids will help when possible, but they cannot be at your service 24/7 - for that you need to move to assisted living."

I want him to be where he's happy - but he also needs to be safe and healthy - I guess time will tell.

I broke my netbook while installing new memory - only broke a silly little connector - but it means I had to order a whole new motherboard.....lesson learned - even if you are following instructions - read them all the way through - I really didn't even have to take that part off in the first place.  Once the new boar comes,.I'm going to ask my computer weenie friend to do the install this time around. 
Good news is that the part was only 40 dollars -some are much, much more.

While I'm shopping,I think I'm going to buy a new keyboard.  This one is hard to type fast on - and its driving me nuts.  Life is too short to deal with this sort of crap.  In fact, I think I'll head out to Best Buy now......

7/15 - Battle of the Birdfeeder

Round 1 goes to either the deer or the squirrels - I'm pretty sure a deer pulled the feeder off the tree - but the squirrels definitely gnawed their way in once it hit the ground.  So, it was off to Lowes to buy another one. I did manage to keep this one safe for two years so I bought the same model again....but this time I added some deer/squirrel/raccoon repellant - we'll see if that helps deter the woodland critters.

Yesterday was clean the house day - something overdue since I had been out of town two of three weekends and the other I was powerless for much of it.  I forget how satisfying it is to wake up in fresh sheets and beautiful surroundings and discover I'm in my own home rather than a hotel or a friend's guest room.

And today was clean the outdoors day.  Granted it was a bit muggy, but I got the backyard mowed, the collected branches chipped, and the roses/flowers cut back before the storm hit.  Not that it's really a storm - some thunder and a bit of rain....unfortunately I don't think it will amount to much and we really do need rain.

I also found time to get my hair cut....paint my nails....and book a September flight to Charleston for a beach adventure with my BFF thanks to an awesome Southwest sale.

7/12 - Catching up is hard to do

I didn't check to see how long its been since I blogged - but I am sure it's been a while.  It seems like all I did was whine about Dad or about work or about something......and then I eventually got too busy to even do that......

But let me summarize the past few weeks.....

I finished my last class and have my MBA

My dad was released and went home.  He can't walk, but he seems to be managing OK with a wheelchair.....time will tell if he really can live alone long term.

Even better, my brother has stepped up and is taking on a major share of the effort involved in keeping him in his house - he's doing the shopping, making changes to the place to help Dad get
around, and most importantly - he's setting boundaries so Dad doesn't drive either of us nuts.

I had two great short vacations....first I went to Charleston and visited my best friend who bought  condo and needed some help unpacking and making some minor fixes.  We changed out some light fixtures, updated vertical blinds, hung curtains - and the place looks really nice.  Plus it was great to escape from the stress of home and have some quality girl time.

Then I headed out to Indiana to visit my friends Amy and Bob.  I met Amy through an online blogging site a few years ago - she and her husband came out to DC for a couple of days last spring and they had a good enough time to invite me out their way.  The "official" reason for visiting was the Madison Regatta - which involves the fastest powerboats I've ever seen.....kind of like NASCAR on the water.  But there was kayaking and fossilhunting and shopping and grilling.....and I got to meet the ducks and the chickens and the goats and the cats and the bunnies - and Rocky the wonderdog.

Its amazing and wonderful how the internet has helped me meet and become friends with people I would never have come across ordinarily.....and my life is much richer for it.

And so I'm going to try, once again, to do better with my blogging.....