Job offer!

Today was a memorable day for all of Houston due to the flooding, and for my husband and I because he finally heard about the job he'd interviewed for and was waiting on -- he got it!

He summed up the process better than I can, and so I just pulled his posting, where he sweetly thanks me, from Facebook.   Congratulations, its because of all of your hard work that you will get to be a full-time college professor!!

Kevin's facebook post to let friends and family know:


I haven't really put much on Facebook about this, but in March I applied for a full time faculty position that opened up at the college I have been teaching at since 2012. Today, I received word that I have been selected for the position! It was one of the best calls I have ever received! Words cannot describe how excited I am right now! As some of you may know, in 2010 I decided to take a risk and make a major career change from Software Engineering to becoming a college professor. Now I can finally say my ultimate goal has been achieved! There is absolutely no WAY I could have done this without the support and encouragement of my incredible wife, Carol, as well as the support of friends and family along the way. I would not have been able to do this alone, but especially without Carol, who I love with all my heart and without whom I would not have gotten to this point. I am forever grateful sweetie:-) And to all of the wonderful teachers and colleagues I have had along the way, I thank you as well, for you helped me dream the dream and to believe that I could make it happen! With great humility, I look forward to my new career while not losing sight of how so many of you believed in me and encouraged me along the way. Thank you to all! 

Professor's first day

Kevin had a great first day of work!    It poured rain all day, unfortunately it flooded many homes and came close to the rain some areas had during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.   Luckily he has a big truck so water was not an issue for him and he gets to park in a garage and the walkway is covered all the way to the building.   He didn't want to be soaked to teach the first class!    He actually had to check to make sure the campus wasn't closed before heading over.

There were some bumps in getting going - the door was locked and he had to track down where to get his key, then he couldn't get his computer log-in to work.  He knew what the problem was since he worked in IT so long, he just had to get one question answered (which domain to use).  The IT department will either love him or hate him since he's worked in IT,  love him because he can help himself in many ways, hate him for the same reason.   Those bumps got him a little flustered, but he calmed down as he started lecturing and really enjoyed it!    He has about 25 students in the in-person class and 35 in his online class.   He's so glad to have the first day out of the way and ready to start up again next week.

I spent the better part of the day in the Amarillo airport due to rain delays in Houston, but was very fortunate to get put on a flight that same day to get home (many ahead of me were being told they could fly tomorrow).   My flight was cancelled but they put me on a flight that was an earlier flight that hadn't arrived yet -- the plane was stuck in Houston.   My original flight was scheduled for 1:20, the one they put me on was scheduled for 10:47 am and we finally left Amarillo about 3:30 pm.  The Amarillo airport was comfortable if you have to be stuck somewhere - they even have a long tabletop with chairs and plugs everywhere, perfect for laptop work!  The food selections were VERY limited (it has one eatery for the SEVEN gates)...

I made it home in time to have dinner with Professor Tucker and hear all about his first day.   He told me that he can't believe he gets paid to do this!!!  I'm so proud of him!   I know he had moments in school when he worried he made a mistake, its hard to do a career change and being on one income for 2 years has been tough.   I know he made the right decision, and his new career will make him happy which is what I want for him and better for both of us.  

I also am so amazed he can get up and lecture and enjoy it!  The thought of getting up and lecturing to people every day makes me feel ill, I don't think I could do it...I do presentations for work sometimes, and am very glad each time they're over.


Unrelated - happy 3rd birthday to our beautiful niece!!!

Back to School

Today we did a different kind of back to school shopping for K.   Most "back to school" shopping is for the students, but we went for him as the professor!

He needed some new clothes before he starts the new job on Thursday (we're both so excited for him to start).  He can't go into the classroom to teach wearing shorts and t-shirts and that seems to be what most of his wardrobe has become since he's been a full-time student the last two years.  He did dress up a bit for his TA class in the fall, but even those clothes were getting ragged.  He only shops when its necessary and hadn't been in quite a while.

We got a good haul of shirts in many different colors -- I even put them in the closet like a rainbow (left brain fun!   He loves the golf shirts since they are cool and 'wick' away sweat, some even have SPF protection, not really necessary in a classroom, but could come in handy if he wears them out and about.    He also got some new pants, undershirts, a belt, socks and even underwear!  About the only thing he didn't need was shoes.  He should be set for awhile.   I think this is the first time I'd seen him actually use the dressing room - good thing to since with all the different cuts and feels of fabrics he needed to use it.  Most of the time he'll just grab something in his size and go -- me, I always have to try it on...and I think he may be a convert!

We also bought a laptop for him so he can do all of his work for his classes.  He won't have an office, so having a computer he can take with him to class and bring with him if he goes anywhere will be key.   I'd never seen a laptop with the number pad before, but they have them now - key for when he has to enter grades!    He spent part of this evening getting it all set up and is ready to go!

Success!

HUGE sigh of relief....the conference I've been working on for nearly a year is now over and done with, and it went really well!!!  It took a lot of hard work by a lot of different people and it was all worth it.   I think that all of the 170+ attendees had a good time and we'd planned for it so well that even though small issues cropped up throughout the week it was nothing we couldn't handle.

I drove down to Corpus Christi on Monday and didn't come back until Saturday.  The conference actually kicked off on Wednesday but there was a lot to do to get ready for it.  I am so glad K let me use his truck, all the stuff I had to bring + picking up another person would not have fit in my little car.

The conference was at the Omni Hotel, and they took really good care of us and were wonderful to work with.  I'd been working pretty hard leading up to the conference and wound up with a cold before I left Houston.   It got so bad that I lost my voice and actually had the President of the organization send me to my room to rest.   I didn't think I'd be able to sleep, but I did and it really did help!   If you have to lose your voice, this hotel was the place to lose it.  The hotel staff went out of their way to help me, providing a steady supply of hot tea with honey and lemon and the other officers really helped too - one even brought me some lozenges for my throat.   It sounded a lot worse than it felt, and it sounded BAD!  My voice still isn't back to 100%..


I didn't attend many sessions during the conference, its a full-time job putting on the conference!  I was able to attend the general sessions and the special event.    I had a lot of good seafood being so close to the coast and we had a great evening on the USS Lexington.   The tours were really interesting, and I even got to sit in the captain's chair on the bridge!

I feel like I'm still recovering from my lack of sleep during the conference.   I didn't get much sleep between stressing about the conference, being away from home and hearing drag racers (loud even 17 floors up!) and wind the last morning.   I've had some early nights since I got home - I went to bed at 8:45 on Saturday!  I should be back to normal soon, and am very glad I'll be in town for a while - two work trips in one month is plenty for this girl!

crazy busy

I knew it would be a busy week, and boy was it!

Work is running me ragged. I want to do a 'day in the life' post, but my schedule lately is just so crazy that I don't even want to think about it when the day is over! maybe next week... Not only is it our busy reporting time, but I'm on a screening committee so we had four (count them 4) interviews on Friday, and 2 others earlier in the week...one more next week. Add to that my regular meetings and the pilot project we just kicked off, and woo-boy I feel like I need to take a picture of my office to get to see it. Luckily for me I have a great staff who do a lot of the work, but I still feel behind and I can't get my mind off of work, which means I woke up super early today.

Kevin is staying really busy too. He was able to cut out one trip to Huntsville by staying with his aunt and uncle Monday night, they they live in Huntsville. I know that he enjoyed saving a round trip and they were happy to have him stay over! I fully support him staying up there and think it will become a regular occurence for this semester. Smokey is NOT in favor of it, he was bummed all that evening, but he'll get over it.. Funny thing is that they tease him that they are finally getting him to spend the night, he wasn't much for sleepovers growing up...

I will enjoy the weekend - today I get to attend a baby shower for a dear friend, and tomorrow we'll watch the Texans go for 3-0 against the Saints! I also did get to see my dear friend Delena who recently moved to Atlanta and I get to see her again today at the baby shower, woohoo!! I already miss her so much!

We are officially no longer in summer, and I say WELCOME AUTUMN!

Tech girl

I think that, in another life, I probably should've been an IT person....well not really, but I do like trying to figure out techy things and am a sucker for gadgets.

I love my smart phone, probably more than is healthy. It lets me see emails, pictures, and all sorts of stuff anytime, almost any place, and its like a *new* phone now that I got a new battery. With my old battery it would randomly turn itself off even when it still had power left and would run itself down really quickly. Not good traits in something that is to be used if I have an emergency. With the new battery, no problems so far :)

My latest techie thing - I got my new computer at work today and I opted to have 2 screens, by keeping my old one and getting the new one too. It'll take some getting used to, but will be wonderful for all the work I do with several programs open. I already used it for some work I was doing on a survey - the survey was open in IE on one screen and the backup documents (Excel mostly) on the other screen. hopefully it won't feel strange to look at a single screen at home....I am also proud that I was able to get my palm to sync to my new computer, for some reason getting that thing set up correctly is always the hardest thing.

Another fun and sort of techie (definitely nerdy) thing that Kevin and I do is geocaching. We use our GPS system and get to go on treasure hunts. We haven't had much success in the past but decided to try again when we realized how many caches there are near us. We went on Sunday (great use of our extra daylight and a beautiful day) with my sister, new to geocaching. We found 2 of the 4 we looked for, and they were SO TINY, called 'micro caches'. We'll definitely be doing more geocaching now that the weather is warming up. It can be frustrating, but was so exciting when we finally spotted what we were looking for. I am learning that when I choose what caches to look for that I need to read the guest book posts, at least enough to know if people have indicated it is missing...one that we looked for is no longer there, oops. I'll learn more as we practice. Its a great way to get outside on a nice afternoon.

Electric windows rock

I did not realize how much I took for granted the power locks and power windows in my car. I took it to the shop today because I am an IDIOT and messed up the side of the car against one of the poles in the parking garage at work. Whose bright idea was it to have a pole every 3 spots?? I'm actually lucky it took almost 2 years for me to do it.

Worst part - its not the first time...I took a mirror off my old car at the parking lot in the apartment complex I used to live in - where there was a pole every OTHER SPOT. Seems like I'd learn to be more careful, and I usually am (see 'almost 2 years' to do it above), that's why they call it an accident. The rental car is a Chevy without power anything.....locks aren't a big deal, but cranking down the window was fun to flash my badge to get in and out of the parking garage. I rode in and drove cars without electric windows for years, but its tough to go back.....guess this will remind me to take care of my car so i don't have to have a rental.

Of course it was a Monday that I did it (last week), because Mondays aren't tough enough without being mad at yourself (and then getting to stew in it at a training all morning). This Monday was better, just crazy since we have a consultant doing work for us remotely, so had several meetings to give him what he needs and to follow up on pieces we need to work out before we can release the project to the community.

Professional development

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am shy around people I don't know – get to know me, I talk your head off, but I am an introvert. This is especially true when I go to conferences. I've had to make a conscious effort to talk to different people and not simply go to the presentations and then disappear into my room. Each time it has gotten a little bit easier. I like to think that as I've forced myself to step out of my comfort zone I've expanded the reaches of my comfort zone. I'll never be a natural public speaker, but I've come a long way and now actually ENJOY getting to talk to people who do similar work at different institutions and have to grapple with some of the same issues. Getting to know these people also gives me resources to bounce ideas or ask questions of since they are familiar with the work that I do, and in some cases have already done something similar to what I may be working on and have a question about.

This year, I decided to take a bigger step by getting involved with putting on the 2010 conference! I think it will be a good opportunity to get to know the people better and also to give back to an organization that has helped me so much in my 8 years (have I really been working 8 years?)

I drove to Waco this afternoon for our planning meeting tomorrow. So now I'm in my hotel room, because I'm tired from a day of work and driving from Houston-Waco.

Nametag

In interoffice mail on Monday, I got a name tag - no information with it or explanation of where it came from. I called another office and the woman I spoke to said they want us to start wearing them each day, probably mostly for identification and security purposes. I've never had a name tag for this job, so it will be strange to put a nametag on every day and to remember to take it off again. I should take a guess at how long I think it'll take to lose it. The last time I wore a nametag for any length of time (other than a conference or meeting) was for my job in 1997 , oh and for one year in high school when they made us wear our IDs.

Thankfully in this job I don't have to mop floors or clean up a movie theater after the showings. I worked at a dollar movie theater the summer after HS graduation. I'd wanted to work at the new 10-screen theater (same company) and interviewed for it, but ended up staying at the old theatre that became a $1 theater when the new one opened. I am still not sure why...oh well, my jobs went up from there. Each of these jobs could be posts of their own, but I felt like doing a bulleted list instead:

• worked at a daycare the summer after my freshmen year of college, this sounds awful but it actually was fun...and 40 hours/week so I made decent money (and was too tired to spend any of it). bonus - I lost a lot of weight that summer - on your feet all day looking after 3 and 4 year olds will do that for you
• housesitting, also I was supposed to babysit at a church but no kids ever showed so I got paid to do my homework for 2 hours every Wednesday for a bit, greatest job ever!
  
• 2 different student worker jobs in college - one for the foreign language department and another for the department that I ended up working for after college. This is really how i found the field I'm in now and i couldn't be happier
• my first post-college job was with my alma mater, and I stayed there for over 6 years!
• my current job, which I love...

Spring came and went

It has been so nice to be at home this week and to be in my office every day. I need to remember that I like being in my office for those weeks when I'm going crazy with reports and other work. So: note to self, you were ecstatic to get to be in your office every day this week! Soon I'll be sharing my office suite with construction crews, so here's hoping that goes smoothly and quickly.

Next week is Spring Break for the students and faculty. I can already tell its coming up, the parking lot hasn't been as full and neither have my email and voicemail inboxes. I know that I'm cursing myself by writing that, as soon as I say that something always comes up, oh well. and, contrary to what people always think, I actually DO work the week of spring break. Since I've worked at two universities, I've gotten asked more times then I can count: what are you doing for spring break? Answer: working

But we get a couple of days off, which was a nice surprise when I started here. No big party plans, but I plan to get some errands run, and get together with friends.

We've started working on the flowerbeds for the spring - we planted some new plants and mulched the backyard. We were going to work on the front yard this weekend, but will have to postpone until it isn't so cold and rainy. its been so long since it rained, it has been nice to see the rain....though I wish people would learn to drive in it, hoping too much I know.

Happy friday the 13th!

Christmas parties

On Thursday, we had the School's Christmas Party, called an "Open House" to be cognizant of the different faiths and cultures or politically correct since we're a state institution. It was fun, but oh so different than Kevin's party last weekend. It is during the work day (nice since we are paid to be there and makes for a better turn out), and was held in the event center on the 3rd floor. It was FULL of people, I don't realize how many people work here until I see the huge room we are in and how full it is, and this is just the employees not guests, etc. that many parties have. It makes sense we have so many employees but I forget since I interact with a much smaller group, and with faculty on their own schedules I almost never see them. They had a DJ with karaoke, and a photo booth to get your picture on a magazine (we actually got one this year, last year we got in line too late), and lots of appetizers - my favorites: some kind of fried corn ball, and an arthichoke heart stuffed with cheese and fried, nothing fried is good for me but oh it tastes so good! I'd told Kevin he was on his own for dinner, because I figured (correctly!) that I wouldn't be hungry for dinner. I recognized a lot more people this year than last year (at last year's party I'd been here only a few weeks) and it was good to see everyone, but it fell on a day when I had a meeting all morning and then right after I left for my fitness release time, so I was in my office for all of about 2 hours.

Contrast this party with Kevin's party, they really couldn't BE much different. He works for a small, private company. It was held last Saturday at a really nice restaurant (Smith & Wollensky's) in Uptown Park. It was a great excuse to get dressed up and have a nice night out. They had a cocktail hour with servers coming around with great appetizers, several of which I couldn't pronounce, the ones I can come up with a name are: ahi tuna, chicken salad with truffles in a shell (puff pastry?) that looked like a tiny ice cream cone (my favorite), beef wellington with truffles, spring rolls, some sort of filet with a pepper sauce (I can't remember the correct name, and when I asked the server what it meant - I was trying to remember it, he said he had no idea). They were all beautifully served, and I tried a little of each. This place has a different level of service than any other place we've been - we went to eat here once and they seriously have a person who picks up the crumbs off the table for you with this little metal tool. The servers would wait for you to eat the appetizer then take the toothpick, napkin, etc. back from you. I wasn't ready to eat it so kept apologizing and they're like quit apologizing. I like to eat out but am never comfortable with that kind of attention. After that we had a sit-down dinner, here were the courses (we chose one from each course):

First Course:

• Caesar salad -- everyone at our table got this one, so I couldn't really see the other one. But this was the strangest looking salad. It was like "assemble your own". They were full stalks of romaine, with parmesan pieces on one side and a generous helping of salad dressing on the other (on the plate, not in a bowl or anything). This is one of two things about the night that I didn't like. Strange thing is we had this salad here before and it didn't come out like this.
• Iceberg wedge - from what I could tell, it looked like an eighth of a head of lettuce on a plate.

Second Course:

• grilled mahi mahi - I got this, and it was good. It came out with grilled vegetables underneath it and it tasted delectable


• filet mignon - Kevin got this, it was also very good, but they didn't make sure everyone got the steak cooked the way they requested it (his was way too red), and he said it was chewy :(


• lemon chicken- one person at our table got this, I opted not to since we make chicken at home a lot and I wanted something I'm unlikely to make. it came out with french fried onions on top of it, really pretty presentation.
  

For everyone to share there were these sides, the first two served in copper pots:

• mashed potatoes
  
• a creamed spinach - melted in your mouth
  
• stalks of asparagus - I can't cook it, but I love asparagus

oh, and their rolls, ohhh...i could go on and on about them. They come out in a round dish and are all connected to each other....mmmm..I love bread.

Third Course:

• Chocolate cake - we each got this, and it was so good, layers of cake with a mousse layer in between, we actually split one piece and brought the other home


• berries and cream - looked good, but can't compete (for us) with chocolate
  

Did I mention there was an open bar? We thought they're probably be just wine, the restaurant is known for it, but nope there was pretty much anything you wanted - I had a cosmo and wine, and Kevin had red wine. We also had wassail that they brought around for everyone to have, very sweet but good and hot since it was cold outside (we kept getting a draft from the door on our dining room that kept opening and closing for people to go outside to smoke - the other thing I didn't like about the evening. The smokers are the ones that want to go smoke, so make them walk a little further so I can stay warm! I actually made the comment seeing all that was spent on that night, that in that room you wouldn't know there was a recession. The company had a great year in 2008, their best yet, and we were happy to share in the good fortune. They had a photographer taking photos, we took a picture of us in front of the tree, I can't wait to see it...hopefully they'll get them next week.

Where did this week go?

For being a full workweek after a holiday week, this week has flown by! I am sure its because I was so busy at work (meetings galore) and at home, a quick recap of the week:

• Kevin went to the Monday Night Football game, the Texans' first game and they won! wahoo!
• I volunteered on Tuesday night
• Wednesday night we were both home, made dinner and watched a movie on the new bluray player, Iron Man. It was actually pretty good. I also got to play with my new phone, - having the internet, facebook, etc in a handheld is ~dangerous~
• We had date night Thursday night, much more fun than going to my book club to discuss a book I hated (and didn't even finish) which were my original plans that night. We like going to Buffalo Wild Wings, especially on cheap boneless wing night, and I love playing the trivia games they have there. I do not know how some players get the full points for EVERY question, but even though I'll never be a top scorer I enjoy it.

I love having a Christmas tree at the house every night, and hope to be home a little more this weekend to enjoy it. We'll attend Kevin's company Christmas party this weekend, it should be fun and I hope to finish up my Christmas shopping. Still not sure if I want to do Christmas cards this year...hmmmm

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We aren't doing much for the holiday, but I am excited to see Ross' new house. This time last year we were working on slating our patio. I took a week off between ending my old job and starting my new job, and what a week it was. My parents helped us to put down slate tiles on the patio, and we also got new countertops (green!) in our kitchen. I'll have to post pictures of it. I am very happy that this year I'm enjoying our hard work and not doing it! I didn't even see trick-or-treaters because we were trying to finish up laying down some of the tiles before it got too dark, my mom did trick-or-treater duty for us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since I started my job right after Halloween last year, next week will be a year since I started! woohoo! I will finally be off probation, and can take advantage of the Fitness Release Program, where I can take 3 hours of work time each week to work out in the gym! I got my boss' approval today, so now just have to wait until I'm off of probation. This will help me in finding time to work out and being consistent.

~~

I can't believe its already been a year, though in some ways it already seems like I've never not been here. Searching for and taking this job was a HUGE step for me, and one I'm glad I took. I've already learned a lot in my short time here and really like the people I work with. I am glad I started in a non-legislative year, it gave me time to get up to speed before the deadlines are moved up and the urgency increases of getting everything done by those deadlines. I knew there were a lot of reports to the state, but could not even imagine how many:

• 6 due every semester (fall, spring, summer)
• 3 due every fall
• plus others that I don't complete but come through my office, ad hoc ones, etc.

These reports are what we spend most of our time doing, and are in addition to the reports to the federal government and external groups I was used to, and the internal reports. It is quite different working for a state institution. It is similar in some ways to where I worked before, it is much larger but has that 'family' feel, and I love how diverse it is! There was a time of adjustment - just getting into an elevator every day was different from my last job and it took me a while to get used to the new uniformed groups I see daily, at my other job it was priests and nuns and here it is police cadets.

~~

Working for the state is interesting. Often it seems like deadlines are recommendations. I'm used to working with if its due then its due then, though I request an extension if I can and think I'll need it. But even some of the state deadlines seem to be just recommendations, its in the directions for reports due in mid-October that "they need to be certified by Dec 1". I guess that what I consider "due" and what they consider "due" (a draft to them) aren't the same thing, good thing though because I've quickly gotten used to being able to go, oh well, past the deadline but this is the real deadline so we're ok.

~~

I really enjoy the work that I do, and am very glad I "fell into it". It is a good fit for me and I stumbled upon it because I wanted a part-time job while I was a college student!

Sustainability

Our blog has followers! I wish I had more to say, and more time to say it for our followers. Work is incredibly busy, in my line of work its always busiest in the fall, and its even busier because I'm still learning some of it - I started in November of last year so I'm finishing up the first cycle of getting through all of the various reports we have to do (and getting a better understanding of some that I saw the end of last year), and since its a legislative year there are some extra ones. I also see that in the spring they have some earlier deadlines because the legislature is in session! I feel a little silly but sometimes have to forward stuff to my boss and ask - is this something I need to complete or send to someone else? oh well, comes with the territory of learning a different job. There are more reports to the state then I could've ever imagined. We'll get them all done, it just seems like a never-ending task to get all of the information and make sure its consistent across the reports.

Today at work was Sustainability Day, so in the morning there was a small farmer's market and giveaways of some earth-friendly items. In the afternoon I went to see a short video and panel discussion about consumption and sustainability and the school's and my own role in it. From Wikipedia: Sustainability is "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" The ideas of reduce, reuse, recycle all go along with the ideas of sustainability and living in a sustainable way. I am by no means an expert on it, but am interested in ways to make my footprint a little smaller. The video showed an artist who depicts how much we consume using photography and Photoshop. It is an interesting way to get the point across and eye-opening to see how much we all consume. It makes me wonder what I can do, I try to do what I can in small ways - bring reusable bags to the grocery store, recycle plastic at work, use an insulated cup rather than disposable cups. I'm not a tree-hugger by any means, but definitely want to do what I can to leave this Earth in good shape for those who come after me.

I also have to make sure to sustain myself, so I'm taking a vacation day on Friday to fully enjoy my birthday weekend. Probably not the best idea with how busy we are, but I wanted to take the day off and the work I don't get done will be waiting for me on Monday. We're going to a Weezer concert tomorrow night, so by taking the day off I can enjoy the concert and get to sleep in a little bit since it'll be a late night. I'm looking forward to having a day off and have plans to go and early vote (I really know how to live it up, huh?)

Light is Good

My parents and in-laws got power back last night, yay! They each had generators, but like all of us were so glad to get electricity back - must remember this when I take for granted I can just flip a switch and I have lights, a/c, etc.

Keith and Julia are going to stay with my in-laws today. Kaden can play with Nana, and maybe even swim! Hopefully they'll get power back soon, its been 11 days since they've been home a long time for anyone and a lifetime for a 3-year-old. It will be a very quiet house when I get home tonight. Its been good to get to spend time with them but I hope they get to go home soon because that is a long time be gone from home, and frustrating since Julia has all this time off but can't get any of the stuff done she'd like to at the house since she doesn't have power. Patty and Smokey (the dogs) are probably going to go into mourning, they've had the most fun being together. Its also made me wonder if I really want two dogs (we'd been considering it). This week has been a good trial run for that, they definitely keep each other company, but I'd be concerned that they'd tear up the house playing all the time, and Smokey never leaves Patty alone, good thing he's fixed - he's always trying to get on top of her, trying to dominate and/or play with her, but its just embarrassing.

Yesterday was my first day back at work. I was very pleased to see that my office is just as I left it when I left early on Thursday, 9/11, to prepare for Ike. We got permission to move our reporting day to Friday since we were closed for a week, but that makes us lose a week in our already busy fall, so it'll be hectic..I think right now is the "calm before the storm", I was busy but nothing like I will be once we hit 20th day.

At lunch, I walked over to see Julia's building, and it is a mess. They are doing a LOT of work on it. Most of the windows facing the Chase tower are gone and there are large yellow tubes coming out onto the sidewalk, trash chutes or wet/dry vacuuming is my guess. The sidewalks all around it are taped off, on travis because of all of the work going on and on the other sides for safety I guess. The streets around it look like they're open. Pretty much every window on the Travis side of Chase tower for 15-20 stories up is boarded up. Since I was there, I ate at Azuma (sushi), good but expensive.

Kevin's offices were messed up, they're in a temporary office space for 30 days and after that they'll figure out what they want to do. He'll be working at home since they only have space for the office workers (he's a consultant). Hearing about all the damage to office buildings, I''m lucky we only missed a week and a day here.

Hectic Week

I am actually EXCITED to go to work tomorrow and be in my office all day. Its been a long, crazy week. I call it my "Tour of Texas". Here is a quick re-cap..

Sunday - my parents came up for the day - we went to Sam's then made dinner (grilled shrimp, corn, and squash)., I think we ruined boiled corn, because grilled is better. That night I drove to Waco to attend a meeting on Monday.

Monday - attended the meeting and then drove home afterwards

Tuesday - at work

Wednesday - got up early to fly to Austin for the day for another work meeting. I'm not sure how useful my attendance was at this meeting, really had no idea what to expect and what I got out of it is that I was not the person to be at this meeting. It did get out early so I got to take an earlier flight home, woo-hoo! Kevin and I went out to eat since we were unexpectedly able to eat dinner together.
EDIT (addition): On the way home the airplane shifted strangely, and then later the pilot said something pretty close to this: we had to take it off auto-pilot because a small craft was coming right at us and we had to avert hitting them, something I really didn't want to know!

Thursday - went to the dentist for my follow-up, then later in the morning over to UH main campus to meet with the people at the other campuses who do the same work we do. We want to get a handle on what sort of data we need to provide to the Chancellor, and try to anticipate it. Was a good meeting also to put faces with names of the people I email regularly when we try to collect system-wide data. The Chancellor's Chief of Staff attended part of the meeting too, I had no idea that position existed, and kept thinking - are we in the White House?

I am going to watch a movie and love being a home for a full evening :)