It has been a LONG time since I've visited this page. So much has happened in the past year and a half.
We had a surprise Happy Birthday, Congratulations (on retiring) and We'll Miss You! party for Carol Morgenstern last night. Tami F and her daughter Heaven were instrumental in putting it all together. We planned this over a month ago and picked 10/17 as the best date for everyone. It gave us time to organize, it was the week before her kids come up to take all her furnishings back home to Livermore and was between her actual birthday (10/12) and her retirement date (10/30). Sounds good, right?
Since the inception of the "party" and the actual happening a lot of monkey wrenches kept popping up.
I had small cancer scare (uterine lining cells are becoming abnormal-technically endometrial hyperplasia atypia which is actually pre-cancerous) resulting in various tests and procedures with the end result being a hysterectomy which will take place on November 2.
I also had a sleep study done because I am ALWAYS tired in the morning and have been for years. Told most of my life that I'm lazy ... turns out I have sleep apnea and have probably had it for 50+ years. I actually had 2 studies done because I could NOT fall asleep for the first one. Had to have a "sleep aide" (read drugs) for the second one. Slept fine! But required two nights at the hospital for the study, appointment for getting the CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine and trying to learn to live with 10 pounds of air pressure being shoved up my nose while sleeping~! Still working on that one.
At work our little group of 3 comprising the Telephony team were in an office by ourselves, but there are new positions being created for Service Point so they need our office for a director and we had to move across to the other side of the building out in the open .. no more privacy. My co-workers, being guys, moved their equipment and were all good. Leaving behind all the phone cords on the floor and the extraneous stuff we'd collected over the past year. Typical men. Don't know who they thought was going to clean up all of that! ME -- besides moving all of my junk, and I do collect a bit of junk. :)
Not only was there moving involved at work, but Commercial is changing the format of their operation and their changes require telephony changes which made our team sort of at the forefront. They are "going live" on Monday which meant many extra hours of work for the preparation, working last Friday until 9:30 and having to work Saturday morning, the day of Carol's party!
During ALL of this, I'm also packing up my bedroom and bathroom because movers are coming on the 24th to take all my furniture to Tigard. I'm renting a room from a wonderful lady I met at work. She lives in Gresham with her new husband, but still owns a home in Tigard where she stays a couple nights a week to shorten her commute. She's happy to have me there so someone will be there when she isn't and I'm happy to have a place to live that I can still afford. Unfortunately this requires a lot of time to pack up and move the boxes down 2 flights of stairs. I've been taking most of the boxes over to the new house on the weekend. That was before I'd decided to hire a moving company. They said it will take only 2 hours to move my furniture so I may throw in the boxes too. It will be worth the extra $$.
So in the midst of all this stress, we're having Carol's surprise party. Tami and Heaven did most of the work, and Tami asked me to pick up the cake from Costco. We were going to do it together, but she was unable to get away and Heaven was sick, sick, sick. She had the pickup scheduled for Saturday but I had to work Saturday from 9-1 and I was supposed to go to a baby shower at 2, then Carol's party at 6. I changed the pick-up to Friday after 4:00 .. turns out I had to work Friday until 9:30 pm! I took a break at 4:00 and got the cake and Tami was going to send Heaven to pick it up from me. Nope. Heaven was still sick. Tami was still unable to get away (taking care of a sick friend) and it was now past 6:30 pm and no one who would be going to the party was still in the office. *sigh*
Talk about stress.
I put the cake in my trunk (didn't want Carol to see it by mistake!) and on Saturday after I got off work, I ran the cake over to the hotel (Heaven works at a local hotel and was able to get one of the conference rooms for our party) but was now very late for the baby shower and I hadn't get purchased a gift. I was unravelling and decided I'd have to be a no-show for the shower. I still needed to pack some boxes for crying out loud! I was also supposed to fix some bbq shredded beef for the party but I didn't get it into the crock pot on time (we had it for dinner tonight though!)
My sister assures me once I start getting oxygen in my lungs and body every night via my CPAP I'll be able to think and plan ahead like a normal person. I was seriously getting an average of 2 to 3 hours sleep every night. And not all at the same time. Sleep apnea causes one to cease breathing while asleep and the brain wakes you up just enough to kick start your breathing. Then you'll have another apnea episode, wake up, breathe, go back to sleep, stop breathing, wake up...etc. For the past umpteen years I've been a fairly high functioning chronically tired (as in sleep-deprived) person. It explains so much. So while I'm not crazy about being hooked up to the machine and having to wear an unsightly mask every night, I'm looking forward to the moment when I get a full night's sleep!
All of this was to tell you that the party was a great success!! In spite of all the silly monkey wrenches. Carol was completely surprised. Told her I was dropping some clothes off for Heaven because they were having a clothing drive at her workplace. When we walked in the door to the room most of the lights were off and the minute she walked in they hollered SURPRISE. She cried. It was great. A lot of fun.

Today Carol and I took a drive to the Oregon coast town of Astoria. Walked around a bit, did a little shopping and back home. It was a restful way to spend the day...so now back to work. I have boxes to pack!! Where the heck did all these books come from . . . . .

It's raining, it's snowing. . .

The news last night said we'd have snow today so I expected to wake up to a winter wonderland this morning. Nope! At 5:30 it was clear and dry. By the time I left for work at 6:45 it was still clear, but started to rain .. just a very light sprinkle. Halfway to work it became more of a drizzle and by the time I hit the parking lot there were pretty big drops. Enough that I pulled up the hood of my jacket. Once I got inside the building the snow started. I've been taking short video clips all morning.

Right now we have huge silver-dollar size clumps falling. Looks like a cloud is disintegrating. You can tell who's from California because we're all excited about the snow (except maybe for those who lived through the blizzard of '08) while the people from Oregon are more jaded.

It's supposed to rain this afternoon and wash it all away .. and I hope that's what happens! Better that than rain that turns to ice. Yikes!

so long...but not goodbye!

I've not gone the route of New Year's resolutions this year, but I have made a to-do list of all the things I keep putting off and I'm trying to tackle at least one task each week. Number one on the list was to get my laptop fixed. My wireless card stopped working!! Just stopped--right in the middle of cruising through the internet. This was about 2 months ago. It wasn't a huge issue at the time because I'm plugged in directly to the cable modem.and BUT this week Cal surprised me with a printer/scanner/copier/fax machine that is WIRELESS! How cool is that .. if only my wireless card on my computer was working.

When I was home for the holidays, Justin said he had the same problem with his laptop (and we have the same brand) and it's a known issue for certain models. If mine is on the list, it's a free repair. Mine is on the list. I called this week and had to run through some trouble-shooting tests to prove that yes, indeed, my wireless card is NOT being recognized by the computer. No duh! I told them that when I first called!!

Well, they've sent me a box with all the packing materials so I can ship it off to the repair facility in TN, where they will replace my motherboard. I completed a backup this evening and I'm about to disconnect. Yes, I can feel the trembling starting in my fingertips. I believe I'm having the beginning of withdrawal symptoms.

As I sit here trying to play on your sympathy (do I hear any AWWWW's??) I must confess that I may be able to bring my work laptop home and as long as I don't connect through VPN I may be able to get on most web sites. We'll see. There are some things I won't be able to do because I don't have admin rights for that computer so I can't download anything or upload any pictures. But I can live with that ... I think.

If not .. hang tight and cross your fingers for an efficient repair and a swift return delivery! Until then, behave yourselves.

Sticker shock!

Yesterday I HAD to get gas in my automobile. Costco is on the way home if I go the roundabout way so off to Costco I went. The lines weren't too bad, and besides ... I had my book to listen to on my Zen (Janet Evanovich's "Motor Mouth") so Ididn't mind waiting. Had the attendant fill 'er up ... still trying to adjust to sitting in the car while I get waited on hand and foot. Okay, just hand. They don't do windows.

It wasn't until much later at home that I pulled the receipt out of my purse and glanced at it. Had to look again. Then once more. Surely there's some mistake?? How many gallons did I get, anyway? 8.317 Huh. And the total price was only $14.30! Say what?!! It wasn't that long ago that I paid as much as $30 for the same tank of gas. Wowza.

So with the money I saved on gas, Carol and I went to Baja Fresh in Beaverton (or Tigard .. never quite sure where one ends and the other begins) and after dinner we joined a group of ladies for an evening of making cards. The kind you mail to people. Had a lot of laughs and came home with 3 cards and a bookmark for $7.

Had a call from Linda Wrenn, a long-time friend who moved to Colorado too many years ago. Her husband Larry has business in Portland and Seattle so she's coming with him. He'll drop her off here on the Monday and pick her up on the following Saturday! We'll have a full week to play and catch up on 'stuff'.

This came on top of the call I had earlier in the week from my friend and fellow crocherer (that's how they pronounce it in Australia) Jenny King. There's a Knit and Crochet Show in Portland May 15-17. She's going to be here for that -- probably teaching at it as well -- so we'll be able to spend some quality time together. She'll be in Dallas, TX the prior week for a fiber show but that won't be nearly as much fun.

This is all so exciting! Maybe 2009 is the year for visitors to Portland. That would be cool. I have 34 vacation days this year so I might as well put them to good use. Ok, sure. Those of you who can't make it up here probably think I should use some of them to come home once in awhile. I will!

I have just enough time to sneak in one episode of Dead Like Me before it's time to hit the hay, so I'll talk with you later!

We love the rain!

My fears of yesterday eve were unfounded. After the fun snowfall (it really was pretty!) the weather warmed up, it rained all night and washed the snow away! It was raining lightly this morning and pretty much cleared up for the rest of the day. We're supposed to get some heavy rain later this week but the weekend is supposed to clear up and be sunny! Perfect time to go scrapbook shopping.

Audrey told me today she found a great scrapbook store in Milwaukee, which is about 30 min from here. Looks like a roadtrip for Saturday!

I'm on call this week so had to get up really early Sat and Sun to run reports. Have to finish them by 8:30 central, which is 6:30 our time. Takes me about 2 hours or so to finish them. You do the math.

I've noticed in the pictures that Stacey posts, she's wearing the hat I knit for Ellie more than Ellie wears it! I guess I'd better knit one for Stacey too! I had a message on Facebook from Stacey's sister, Jill, saying she loves Grace's hat but it's too small for her (Jill). She wants one too. Will do some yarn shopping this weekend too.

One of the nifty gifts I got for Christmas was a FLIP video camera. Cal and I both got one. I've been taking videos of our apartment to share with you guys and I'm going to try to upload them here. Let's see how this works:

This is the first episode .. I have more to post at a later date. :) I also got a camcorder for taking real movies but they will be too large to post here. See? there's a purpose for each one!

The other happy-making thing for me is the Roku box I bought to stream my Netflix Instant movies to my TV! I only have basic cable upstairs and there's not much to watch. I can watch Netflix on my computer, but then I have to sit at my computer table to watch them. NOW I can stream movies to my TV and watch them from my bed! Pure heaven!!

I have to post this now to see if the video will work. Later!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful ...

Everyone around here keeps talking about "the snow of '08" and lamenting that we're only 2 weeks into winter so there's bound to be more. Well, it's here. All day I was expecting rain, but nope! It started snowing. Real snow .. not the ice crusting of 2 or 3 days ago.

Carol came home yesterday and I had to relinquish the garage (we take turns) so my car was parked on the street because I hadn't moved it. I went down a few hours ago to park it in the driveway, hoping that it will give me a little respite from snowfall. I just looked out my window and what I can see of my car is completely white. I had cleared all the windows when I moved it but they are completely whited out now. The street isn't completely blanketed because of the traffic, and it's really not a major snowfall when one looks at the lawns -- maybe an inch? But an inch on a car is a LOT! I'll have to run out there early tomorrow and warm the car up before I head out. Dang.

I wanted to mention how much I enjoyed seeing everyone when I was home. Some people I didn't get to visit with long enough (Pat, I promise...next time we'll do lunch together in that cool cafeteria!) and even though I technically was home for a long time, there was so much to do that I didn't have time to do all I wanted. So much to do and so little time to do it.

When I went to Farmers (the new building) to see whomever was there, I went to lunch with Barb, Lynda, Joyce, Leslie and Cathy at Red Robin .. across the street from the office. During lunch I had call on my cell phone. There aren't too many people who call me on my cell phone. I knew most of them were at work and I was eating lunch with the others. I answered the phone and it was Carlos! My co-worker here in Hillsboro. Turns out he was in PLEASANTON! Actually on Hacienda looking for the office building. He supports that facility as the Avaya engineer. How funny is that! I seriously think he just missed me so much he made up an excuse to see me. When I went over to the office to see Jaime, there was Carlos .. big as life.

Here's a little "who knew" tidbit. Several years ago I had a food allergy test done. I'm allergic to 7 foods and eating them cause me to have a dry cough and/or my throat will swell. One of the items I'm allergic to is quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I'd never heard of it. My sister told me it's a grain that's used in South American countries for flour and such ... not to worry, I'll probably never see it!

One night, while at Eric's, Stacey made a delicious spaghetti supper. When we're about halfway through it, she asked me how I liked the pasta. It's really good! say I. She smiles really big and tells me that it's made with QUINOA! How about that! She proceeds to tell me all the benefits of this great product ... and I'm laughing to myself. What are the odds? She felt bad when I told her I'm allergic to it, but why would I go around telling people I'm allergic to quinoa?

To add to this story, after I get home, I make a run to Costco and you know how the food samplers are out in force. There was a new cracker/chip that I tasted and it was pretty darned good! It has flax and sesame and just lightly salted. The carbs were decent. I bought a bag and they tasted just as good when I got them home. While eating them (and after consuming several) I was reading the bag. I read everything..if there's no book handy I'll read labels, ok? Huh. One of the ingredients in this great tasting product is .. you guessed it .. quinoa! I swear, I will now have to read every friggin' label because it appears this product is now invading the northern continent.

I was told that if I purge all the foods I'm allergic to for 30 days, I can reintroduce them one at a time in small amounts and I may be able to build up a tolerance for one or more of them. The problem is one of the main things I'm allergic to is brewers' yeast. Doesn't sound like such a big deal until you realize brewers yeast is used to make vinegar and vinegar is a main ingredient in just about every condiment known to man. I don't know if I can make it 30 days without ingesting anything that has vinegar in it! I gave up bananas, I drink soy milk but I've not been able to go without all dairy products (sour cream - yogurt - cottage cheese!). Maybe that will be one of my 2009 goals. To make it 30 days without my allergy foods. Can I do it? I don't know .. stay tuned!