...and darkness descends

Pat Winnie wrote that she's having blog withdrawal so I promised I'd post something tonight. It's starting to get dark earlier and earlier. Sunset is 6:58 tonight, although it's 7:00 pm and still dusk outside MY window. It's still dark when I get up in the morning and doesn't start getting light until close to 7:00. *sigh*

Carol told me at dinner that we're supposed to be in for a storm this weekend. I just looked up the weather on Weather.com and it shows "possible showers" starting Thursday with actual rain one or two days. Where does that equate to a storm?? It *has* been a bit windy the last couple nights, which is really neat. Slammed by bedroom door shut a couple times. That'll wake you up! We were downstairs and SLAM. Wowza.

Saturday I went to Centralia WA with Carol's supervisor, her sister and her sister's friend. We were scraphopping. Two stores in Centralia and one in Battle Ground. We did a lot of laughing and sharing of stories (they have some good ones!) and sharing ideas. I was worn out when I got home. Then on Sunday Cindy from the credit union came over and I showed her how to make the mini album. She stayed until about 3:00. As much fun as I had, when the entire weekend is busy it doesn't feel like I've had a weekend.

I started training last week on assigning tickets from our work request queue. Sheesh. There's so much involved with each request ... 2 or 3 places to record it and then creating the assignment. And I'm still so slow at it. I've been working overtime just to try to keep up. Brought my computer home tonight to work on it for a couple of hours.

One of the issues that seems to keep popping up is that we are 2 hours behind Austin, TX and Olathe, KS. They forget that and poor Christian is getting calls really early in the morning.

There's a conference call set up for all of GITO (Global IT-our group) so I reserved a room and have the video equipment ready to go. I called Peggy to see what number we dial in to and she tells me it's been rescheduled for Thursday. I didn't get any notice about rescheduling, so I write to the exec's secretary for clarification. She said Austin was rescheduled for Thursday, but the rest of us are tomorrow. Then Peggy asks Adrian and he gets on the phone with me and said he wants us to join the Austin conference -- all of Dalton's team will be in the same meeting -- at 9:00 CDT. Uh, Adrian? You want us to be here at 7:00? Which means I have to be here by 6:00-6:30 to set it up! Shoot, Carlos can barely make it in by 8:30. There's NO WAY he'd be in by 7:00! Adrian let us off the hook and we're doing the 9:00 meeting tomorrow. Whew.

I finished the mini-album I was making of Colin. It went in an entirely different direction from what I originally planned. It was just going to be a bunch of his baby pictures, but I wound up doing one that's more family oriented. It is SO cute!! I have a bunch of ideas for more of them. I have to order more Ellie pictures before I can finish hers, but have to wait for payday.

Cal called to let me know his schedule for his cataract surgeries. His first one is October 14, and Eric's going to work from our house so he can be with him. (THANK YOU, Eric) The second one is scheduled for November 18. I'll have to use the days I'd scheduled for Thanksgiving to go home for that so I'll be having Thanksgiving up here. I've already had two invitations to join people for the holiday, so that's nice. Of course, if I stay here, I'll spend the day with Tami and Heather.

I'm still driving home 10/29 .. Peggy said since we worked on Labor Day, I might get to take the day before as well. Otherwise, I'll leave right after work and drive halfway, spend the night and finish up the next morning.

Christian shared a cool web site with me: https://www.23andme.com/
For $399 you can have your genetic profile done! Check out the web site .. it tells you how many different characteristics, etc they report on. Find out where your ancestors are from, what diseases you may be prone to. I think it's fascinating and I'm saving my money to have it done.

Just shared Stacey's latest pics with several of you (I can add you if you want, but that means you have to look at pics of my grandkids every month) and seeing Colin in his soccer uniform reminds me of when my kids were playing soccer. Almost the same color uniforms. Time certainly does fly.

Speaking of time, it's flying even as we speak. I still have work to do, so I think I've bored you enough for this session. Hey! the wind is picking up! I love hearing the leaves rustle right outside my window. I hope some of you are planning to come up for a visit next year! I miss all of you like crazy and can't wait to see you.

Take care, everyone, and keep in touch! Love you all!