Off to the North Tomorrow
1 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 28 May 2008 at 5/28/2008 10:17:00 am.
Sometimes I do that thing that everyone does from time to time.... swimming in a pool of self pity and negativity. I think back to all the times in the last month that I've been whinging about being too busy and having too much on my shoulders and blah blah blah blah. Yeah welcome to owning your own business, Pitiful Patty.
Today I was writing a message to Marshy and before the end of it, it became clear that I need an attitude adjustment (but not the kind where your mom takes you into the bathroom at grandma's house and holds her hand over your mouth while she spanks the crap out of you and you come out holding your bottom in your hands).
Essentially through the magic of writing an email I realized that all the things that have been bogging me down lately (work, moving office, new employees, studying, etc) are all things that are just plain Catalysts of Good in my life, leading the way to Planet Happiness in the future, and that I should just keep my head down and bear it for the remainder of this dip in the road.
Fer example: all the new jobs that are weighing me down at work are effectively what's responsible for allowing us to move ($$$) to the new place which is SUCH a nice space - I like it more and more every time we're holed up in there at 8pm painting walls so I cant complain about that. And to be honest I'm really enjoying the course that I'm studying PLUS I'm using everything I'm learning already, so I can't complain about that either, AND the new kids at the office are darlings who absorb a good chunk of my workload and we all get along great...
To conclude, if I could just get this one thing done at work that is looming over my head for the last month, I would be in unusually good form, I think. So I'm going to make an effort to get that thing wrapped up as soon as humanly possible.
In the meantime, we got a job up in the Rip-off Delta and the Mr. and I have hijacked the site visit so that we can go up there, poke around on the job tomorrow and then spend the rest of the weekend relaxing in Maun. The first night we're staying at an old fishing camp on the panhandle of the delta, and then over the weekend at a semi-swanky (actually, low-end for the Expensivanko) lodge on a small game farm. While most tourists that go there take these little boat trips into the delta and get to watch lions killing and eating buffalo and all that NatGeo stuff, we're electing to save our Pula (um, $800 USD per night no thanks) and stay outside of the actual Delta, with the birds and dime-a-dozen antelope. Sleep all morning and read a lot and take a few walks & drink wine on the veranda, etc.
We had a braai at our place for 10 this weekend. It's been at least 6 or so months since I had to cook for that many people. But it went off great. I made real yankee (yellow) potato salad and pork steaks (which NO ONE here EVER puts on the braai) marinated in all that KC Masterpiece yumminess that my aunt & uncle imported for me from back home. And boerewors of course. It was all delicious and Mary cleaned everything up so I didn't have to contend with every single dish in my pantry being bbq sauced and every wine glass I own being drunk out of.
Which is another reason I'm so glad I have this weekend totally and utterly OFF.
Today I was writing a message to Marshy and before the end of it, it became clear that I need an attitude adjustment (but not the kind where your mom takes you into the bathroom at grandma's house and holds her hand over your mouth while she spanks the crap out of you and you come out holding your bottom in your hands).
Essentially through the magic of writing an email I realized that all the things that have been bogging me down lately (work, moving office, new employees, studying, etc) are all things that are just plain Catalysts of Good in my life, leading the way to Planet Happiness in the future, and that I should just keep my head down and bear it for the remainder of this dip in the road.
Fer example: all the new jobs that are weighing me down at work are effectively what's responsible for allowing us to move ($$$) to the new place which is SUCH a nice space - I like it more and more every time we're holed up in there at 8pm painting walls so I cant complain about that. And to be honest I'm really enjoying the course that I'm studying PLUS I'm using everything I'm learning already, so I can't complain about that either, AND the new kids at the office are darlings who absorb a good chunk of my workload and we all get along great...
To conclude, if I could just get this one thing done at work that is looming over my head for the last month, I would be in unusually good form, I think. So I'm going to make an effort to get that thing wrapped up as soon as humanly possible.
In the meantime, we got a job up in the Rip-off Delta and the Mr. and I have hijacked the site visit so that we can go up there, poke around on the job tomorrow and then spend the rest of the weekend relaxing in Maun. The first night we're staying at an old fishing camp on the panhandle of the delta, and then over the weekend at a semi-swanky (actually, low-end for the Expensivanko) lodge on a small game farm. While most tourists that go there take these little boat trips into the delta and get to watch lions killing and eating buffalo and all that NatGeo stuff, we're electing to save our Pula (um, $800 USD per night no thanks) and stay outside of the actual Delta, with the birds and dime-a-dozen antelope. Sleep all morning and read a lot and take a few walks & drink wine on the veranda, etc.
We had a braai at our place for 10 this weekend. It's been at least 6 or so months since I had to cook for that many people. But it went off great. I made real yankee (yellow) potato salad and pork steaks (which NO ONE here EVER puts on the braai) marinated in all that KC Masterpiece yumminess that my aunt & uncle imported for me from back home. And boerewors of course. It was all delicious and Mary cleaned everything up so I didn't have to contend with every single dish in my pantry being bbq sauced and every wine glass I own being drunk out of.
Which is another reason I'm so glad I have this weekend totally and utterly OFF.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HIJACK MOMMY BLOG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(*jjfu(ouophihh
WAH WHA WHA WAAAHH WHA WHA
BLOG BLOG BLOG!!!!!!!!!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SECH BIG FAT STUPID STINK DOG HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
REILLY W. IS BEST
REILLY RULES EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
REILLY + CODY = TLA
YY Y Y Y Y Y Y Y !!!!!!!!!!
Since we're in this lovely patch of INSANE at the moment, I have neglected many things, not the least of which has been my best friends in the whole wide world (2 legged and 4 legged alike). So today I did something radical, which I shall threaten to do again, it was so fulfilling.
At normal Coffee's-Ready-Now-Time, I was the only person in the office and looking at the backlog I had to clear out in my personal emails, I was just like "Feck it!" and picked up the phone and called one of them (friends, that is. 2 legged, to be precise).
In 30 minutes of good old fashioned verbal chatter, my spirits lifted, my recently-suppressed laughter quota was filled, some catching up got done, and good fun was had by all. Well, probably with the exception that I foiled Podgey's attempt at a good day-off-sleep-in. Oops.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Note to self: call random people more often for no good reason.
At normal Coffee's-Ready-Now-Time, I was the only person in the office and looking at the backlog I had to clear out in my personal emails, I was just like "Feck it!" and picked up the phone and called one of them (friends, that is. 2 legged, to be precise).
In 30 minutes of good old fashioned verbal chatter, my spirits lifted, my recently-suppressed laughter quota was filled, some catching up got done, and good fun was had by all. Well, probably with the exception that I foiled Podgey's attempt at a good day-off-sleep-in. Oops.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Note to self: call random people more often for no good reason.
I was at work til 7pm last night
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 20 May 2008 at 5/20/2008 08:15:00 am.
We're still sitting in that patch of "insane" at the moment.
like when everything is going along just swimmingly (who says that!??!) and then all of a sudden you just hit a big fat patch of insane.
To illustrate:
....swimmingly...... swimmingly...... swimmingly..... --> INSANE!!!..... swimmingly..... swimmingly....
This is the month where everything is happening. Deadlines are all up in mah grillz, the new landscape architect attachment student is winging her way in from France on friday and we're not ready for her, we're moving to a new office building, and I have 2 assignments due for school. FUNFUNFUN!
Probably the biggest pain in the hole is the "moving to a new office building" part. It just requires so freakin much WORK! This is one of the main reasons why we stayed here in the shithole so long. It was virtually pain-free.
This weekend the Mr. and I spent the bulk of a whole Saturday with P., doing demolition of interior walls in the new place. It's all done now, but we all probably have some sort of terminal lung disease due to the amount of plaster we inhaled. So much for yours truly the health and safety expert! Then comes the Great Race for Affordable Office Furniture that we've been participating in. WHY do people in this country find it necessary to rip you off so blatantly on fake-wooden desks!?!??! It's just not fair. 4 desks is gonna cost me more than my month's salary. That is just BS.
Network connections = bollocks. Probably gonna have no internet for the first week or 2 that we're in there due to our service provider being A WORTHLESS NO-GOOD STINKING ASS-CLOWN and not being able to get us up and running seamlessly on the day of the move. Telcomms are *possibly* going to work on time, but we won't be sure until the sun rises over d-day itself.
The new place is going to be brilliant. It's new, it's cute, it's got a real landscapey feel about it, and it's only a 10min drive from my house. all tile floors and (now) open plan with a tiny little courtyard out the back for Reggie to do his bid-nez.
BUT IT'S FREAKIN PAINFUL AT THE MOMENT!
I have a space chair :-)
For the last 3 weeks I've been my yoga class's teacher :-o
My husband has hit a bad patch of overworked + cranky :-(
We may or may not have sold our house in Ireland :-?
I have had the same damn cold for over 5 weeks now x-(
It was a beautiful autumn weekend this weekend - complete with puppies in the sun.
And husbands reading bird books on the stoep in their flannel pyjamas.
like when everything is going along just swimmingly (who says that!??!) and then all of a sudden you just hit a big fat patch of insane.
To illustrate:
....swimmingly...... swimmingly...... swimmingly..... --> INSANE!!!..... swimmingly..... swimmingly....
This is the month where everything is happening. Deadlines are all up in mah grillz, the new landscape architect attachment student is winging her way in from France on friday and we're not ready for her, we're moving to a new office building, and I have 2 assignments due for school. FUNFUNFUN!
Probably the biggest pain in the hole is the "moving to a new office building" part. It just requires so freakin much WORK! This is one of the main reasons why we stayed here in the shithole so long. It was virtually pain-free.
This weekend the Mr. and I spent the bulk of a whole Saturday with P., doing demolition of interior walls in the new place. It's all done now, but we all probably have some sort of terminal lung disease due to the amount of plaster we inhaled. So much for yours truly the health and safety expert! Then comes the Great Race for Affordable Office Furniture that we've been participating in. WHY do people in this country find it necessary to rip you off so blatantly on fake-wooden desks!?!??! It's just not fair. 4 desks is gonna cost me more than my month's salary. That is just BS.
Network connections = bollocks. Probably gonna have no internet for the first week or 2 that we're in there due to our service provider being A WORTHLESS NO-GOOD STINKING ASS-CLOWN and not being able to get us up and running seamlessly on the day of the move. Telcomms are *possibly* going to work on time, but we won't be sure until the sun rises over d-day itself.
The new place is going to be brilliant. It's new, it's cute, it's got a real landscapey feel about it, and it's only a 10min drive from my house. all tile floors and (now) open plan with a tiny little courtyard out the back for Reggie to do his bid-nez.
BUT IT'S FREAKIN PAINFUL AT THE MOMENT!
I have a space chair :-)
For the last 3 weeks I've been my yoga class's teacher :-o
My husband has hit a bad patch of overworked + cranky :-(
We may or may not have sold our house in Ireland :-?
I have had the same damn cold for over 5 weeks now x-(
It was a beautiful autumn weekend this weekend - complete with puppies in the sun.
And husbands reading bird books on the stoep in their flannel pyjamas.
I am in good form today (finally).
I just booked tickets to..... envelope, please?...... (drum rollllllllll.....)
Our nation's great capital, the one, the only Washington DC!!!..... (rim shot, kazoo blast!)
The price hadn't gone up as far as Atlanta since we first started planning, plus a bunch of our friends are there, plus it will be just a wee bit cheaper to survive on a Pula as opposed to the other option of NYC. And the dates matched.
So now, we start the real fine tuning. Priceline.com as well as Kayak will be visited for insanely-priced (hopefully) cheap internal flights to, a New Year's plan will be made (hopefully that involve Jean coming over from Glasgow), a road trip will be designed (hopefully that involves the eerie town of Savannah, GA and 2 very special guests from Houston and the dirty dirty VA), and my brother will be contacted about embezzling a rental car from his company for us.
I'm so excited it's almost like Big Kev excited.
And whyyyyy, prey tell, am I so excited??? I have no idea!!!! It's not like I've never been home before... obviously it's not about having a family xmas holiday (god forbid).... I think it's just that it'll be my first trip out of Botswana in over 2 years and that's quite unusual for me so I'm getting a bad case of cabin fever. And boy howdy by December 10th it'll be a hell of a lot worse.
Oh and I take my final exam on the day before we leave, and we all know how much I get off on the rush of boarding a plane with that feeling of "I've really earned this trip!!"
AND I've never had a month-long holiday before.
Now, just to get through the next 6-and-a-half months....
kayak.com rules!
thanks, kayak.
(oh and thanks SheOfDC for the recommendation, again)
I just booked tickets to..... envelope, please?...... (drum rollllllllll.....)
Our nation's great capital, the one, the only Washington DC!!!..... (rim shot, kazoo blast!)
The price hadn't gone up as far as Atlanta since we first started planning, plus a bunch of our friends are there, plus it will be just a wee bit cheaper to survive on a Pula as opposed to the other option of NYC. And the dates matched.
So now, we start the real fine tuning. Priceline.com as well as Kayak will be visited for insanely-priced (hopefully) cheap internal flights to
I'm so excited it's almost like Big Kev excited.
And whyyyyy, prey tell, am I so excited??? I have no idea!!!! It's not like I've never been home before... obviously it's not about having a family xmas holiday (god forbid).... I think it's just that it'll be my first trip out of Botswana in over 2 years and that's quite unusual for me so I'm getting a bad case of cabin fever. And boy howdy by December 10th it'll be a hell of a lot worse.
Oh and I take my final exam on the day before we leave, and we all know how much I get off on the rush of boarding a plane with that feeling of "I've really earned this trip!!"
AND I've never had a month-long holiday before.
Now, just to get through the next 6-and-a-half months....
kayak.com rules!
thanks, kayak.
(oh and thanks SheOfDC for the recommendation, again)
Beagely Bassity De-bunk
2 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 09 May 2008 at 5/09/2008 11:13:00 am.
The universe might be working against me at the moment, but the animal kingdom is being very good to me.
My dear old beagle finally got his biopsy results back today after almost a month of waiting. He has a very special type of cancer, and lo and behold: it's a type of cancer that doesn't spread through the blood! This is fantastic news because while his tumor will continue to grow in it's locality, we don't have to worry about it spreading into his nearby lymph nodes and filtering all throughout his body (which was the worry before).
The gorgeous wonderful amazing lovely vet (New Vet) says while you can treat cancer in dogs with meds nowadays, they are extremely toxic and hard-hitting and will bring an old dog to its knees in pain if you administer them. So really, the best thing we can do for him is continue to let the lump grow until it gets uncomfortable, and then bring him in to have it operated on and removed. As long as that doesn't get too much more frequent than a couple times a year, as the operation and anesthesia is also very hard on the old boy.
So for now, we can actually just live with it, and at the same time not have to live in the constant state of fear that we were.
The morale of this story is: even if you fear the worst, ASK FOR TESTS TO BE DONE. DEMAND A DIAGNOSIS. Several vets I've dealt with will often just stop at an observation ("it's probably cancer". yeah, well what kind?) I can only imagine Old Vet's handling of this exact same situation, had we stuck with him: "well, he's got a lump that grows back every time we remove it, so, probably cancerous. Sorry. We're not sure how much longer he has. Oh well, he's old."
And on top of that, had a really good board meeting with the animal people last night. A few glasses of wine and some pizza in J.'s office's conference room, and 4 hours later we've solved a myriad of funding and logistical nightmares for at least the next month. Animal welfare people really make the best committees you can imagine. Even though we have to discuss horrible issues such as how many shelter pups have to be euthanized in the coming weeks, or the shelter employees stealing donated food to sell it off and what to do about it, you just get the feeling you're doing something that matters, with people who are decent.
As my old boss John always said: "you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals". I've always remembered that, and have not yet found a case where it wouldn't apply.
My dear old beagle finally got his biopsy results back today after almost a month of waiting. He has a very special type of cancer, and lo and behold: it's a type of cancer that doesn't spread through the blood! This is fantastic news because while his tumor will continue to grow in it's locality, we don't have to worry about it spreading into his nearby lymph nodes and filtering all throughout his body (which was the worry before).
The gorgeous wonderful amazing lovely vet (New Vet) says while you can treat cancer in dogs with meds nowadays, they are extremely toxic and hard-hitting and will bring an old dog to its knees in pain if you administer them. So really, the best thing we can do for him is continue to let the lump grow until it gets uncomfortable, and then bring him in to have it operated on and removed. As long as that doesn't get too much more frequent than a couple times a year, as the operation and anesthesia is also very hard on the old boy.
So for now, we can actually just live with it, and at the same time not have to live in the constant state of fear that we were.
The morale of this story is: even if you fear the worst, ASK FOR TESTS TO BE DONE. DEMAND A DIAGNOSIS. Several vets I've dealt with will often just stop at an observation ("it's probably cancer". yeah, well what kind?) I can only imagine Old Vet's handling of this exact same situation, had we stuck with him: "well, he's got a lump that grows back every time we remove it, so, probably cancerous. Sorry. We're not sure how much longer he has. Oh well, he's old."
And on top of that, had a really good board meeting with the animal people last night. A few glasses of wine and some pizza in J.'s office's conference room, and 4 hours later we've solved a myriad of funding and logistical nightmares for at least the next month. Animal welfare people really make the best committees you can imagine. Even though we have to discuss horrible issues such as how many shelter pups have to be euthanized in the coming weeks, or the shelter employees stealing donated food to sell it off and what to do about it, you just get the feeling you're doing something that matters, with people who are decent.
As my old boss John always said: "you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals". I've always remembered that, and have not yet found a case where it wouldn't apply.
oooh i am soooo scared!
2 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 06 May 2008 at 5/06/2008 01:57:00 pm.
I just turned in my first assignment (draft) to my tutor for review. The final draft must be turned in next month, but they give you comments on your draft if you send it in by 5pm today.
I haven't turned in an assignment in 8 years. Now I'm totally freaked out. What if I didn't interpret the words "critically assess..." correctly, and rather I just wrote 4000 words that were more relevant to a "describe and analyse..." question? I know my references were weak, but all of my thoughts actually came out of my own head rather than having to be taken as quotes from these stupid recommended reading books. Isn't that the idea? I LEARNED the material and was then able to pontificate on it, rather than just using other people's words as references....
Oh man I bet it's horrible. I bet my tutor is gonna say it's horrible. I'm probably gonna have a lottttttt of re-writing to do in the next month. And at the same time I've got to be researching the next assignment. Well at least that's only 2500 words, but it's one of those "Discuss the implications of this Act and whether or not it is fair and effective" types. uggggggghhhhh...
I haven't turned in an assignment in 8 years. Now I'm totally freaked out. What if I didn't interpret the words "critically assess..." correctly, and rather I just wrote 4000 words that were more relevant to a "describe and analyse..." question? I know my references were weak, but all of my thoughts actually came out of my own head rather than having to be taken as quotes from these stupid recommended reading books. Isn't that the idea? I LEARNED the material and was then able to pontificate on it, rather than just using other people's words as references....
Oh man I bet it's horrible. I bet my tutor is gonna say it's horrible. I'm probably gonna have a lottttttt of re-writing to do in the next month. And at the same time I've got to be researching the next assignment. Well at least that's only 2500 words, but it's one of those "Discuss the implications of this Act and whether or not it is fair and effective" types. uggggggghhhhh...
