Two more hours

I'm looking for two more hours in my day. Do you have any idea how much I could get done if I just had two more hours? I'd have no excuse to not exercise. I could get to some of those projects I "just don't have time for." I could fix all the IT things at work that for lack of a better person have become my responsibility (and are being neglected). I could go on and on (probably two hours work of whining about not having the time). In Japan, appartently they have a 26-hour day. So who knows, maybe there's hope yet?

Where'd that thought go?

I had a post I was going to write, all in my head nicely organized with good sentence structure and flow and subtle humor. I'm sure it's still up there lost in some sulcus of my brain. Pity, really, because it would have been a good post, too.

I think my office has fleas

I live in a house with four cats (all indoors) and never see fleas. We fought through two flea issues when they were kittens, but knock on wood have not seen any sights lately. But work seems to be different. Now I'm not saying we have a flea infestation, but it's just odd. Last week I was with a patient and I noticed a tiny bug on my sleeve, and when I picked it off it was a flea (quickly squashed with my pen). Then the other day I thought I saw something, but disregarded it. But to top things off, I was adjusting one of the staff and sure enough there was another one, this time on my pants leg. It jumped when I went to get it (makes me think it's on me and I get itchy, subconsciously). It's not like they're just jumping all over the place, but obviously there's something there. One, it could have come off someone's shoe. But three, I just don't know.

Birthday

My birthday was on Friday ... we had a nice weekend. Friday I took cookies that Jeni baked in to work for my patients (a big hit!) and had a nice relaxing afternoon with Jeni. Saturday we had Lisa and Brian, Tish, Susan and John, and Bill and Barbara over for dinner. Jeni made gumbo (expect a recipe up soon on Kitchen Sherpa) and we had a nice evening with good company and full bellies. I got several nice gifts, including the movie MirrorMask from Tiffany, gift cards from Lisa and Brian, and Bill and Barbara, and work (all of which are going to go to very good use), and some nice Rainbow flip-flops from Tish, Susan and John. Gracie helped me open gifts and blow out the candles on my cake (posting from work or I'd show the great picture Jeni took of me and Gracie blowing out the candles). I got a nice birthday blog post from Doug, my sister called and had her friends sing happy birthday to me, Rick and Hannah called (they were down in Atlanta from Kentucky -- wish it had been a different weekend and we could have seen them and their great kids), and Mom and Dad sent money and a CD full of old pictures Mom had scanned in from slides (remember slides?). I couldn't ask for more ... the gifts were nice, but the friendships are the true value. The card signed by three-year-old Gracie was a bigger thrill than the gifts that came with it -- thanks to everyone for, well, everything...

Ahoy there, matey!

Wednesday, September 19 is Talk Like A Pirate Day! I usually mention it casually (and with a little chuckle) every year at work, but never play it up. This year, my boss went to Disney a few weeks ago and brought me back a handful of Pirates of the Caribbean stuff so I guess it'll be "Arrr"-ing at my patients tomorrow and giving them a "Shiver me timbers that's quite a case sciatica!" Good fun...

Double chocolate peanut butter pie

Kitchen Sherpa has a new recipe -- yummy pie!

So what's Chris been up to in the last year....

As many of you know, our friend Chris Rourke has been in Ethiopia for almost a year. He will send us updates periodically and send pictures. We received an email this week saying that he will be back home in October. He also sent along links to two articles that have been written about the work they are doing over there. Here's the first. Chris is quoted in this article. (sidenote: Chris said "There are a couple of things wrong with the article, but it does talk a lot about what we are doing here.") And here's the second. In the photo, Chris is the solider on the right.

Here are just a couple of pictures he has sent us over the last year. The last one is from the trip he and Amy took to New Zealand.



Dean and I can't wait to have Chris home safe and sound and to hear all about his adventures in Ethiopia. Safe travels Chris!!

Bonus room stripe

This is a picture of the bonus room over the garage after the final coat of paint and all the tape had been removed, but the furniture is still in the middle of the room. The stripe is "batter bowl green," a Martha Stewart color the Jeni fell in love with years ago and hung on to waiting for the right spot. We went with the brown to pull from the hallway color, but several shades darker, keeping a flow through the house.


To do the stripe, we used the same taping technique we used in the dining room (forgot a step, bled brown paint into the stripe and had to retape...) but it turned out very good. The stripe is 12 inches wide and goes around the entire room. We're thinking of using the green in the laundry room (that you can't see, but the washer and dryer are behind two doors behind me).


To determine the height of the stripe Jeni decided to go from the angle of the ceiling. Since this is a room over the garage, one side has a slight angled ceiling from the roof line. You can also barely see an access door to the storage off this room. We painted that the same wall color so it is less of an eye-sore.

More painting

We painted the bonus room over the garage over Labor Day. Due to forgetting a step, we managed to have to tape it, oh, about four times, before we got it just right, but it was worth it. We'll try to post pictures this weekend -- easier than trying to explain exactly what we did.