Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that in 38 hours, my vacation starts, baring any delays
from possible hurricane Danny. Or, look at it another way, noon
tomorrow vacation starts!

I am thankful that my not-quite boss is very understanding when other
sections of the company screw up my timing/sample planning.

I am VERY thankful the safety committee meeting for this afternoon is
cancelled. I might finish everything up before I go away!

I am thankful that Percy is still being a complete snugglebug. It's
different behaviour for him, which concerns me a little bit, but I'll
take the snuggles for now.

I'm thankful for Michelle who is willing to stop by while we're away
and spoil Percy rotten. We may get told to just leave again by him
when we get home...

I'm thankful for cooler weather that means we've been able to sit at
home in the evenings the last two nights with all the windows open
enjoying the breezes.

I'm absurdly thankful for the great writing in Leverage that has Brian
and I having to pause it so we can finish laughing before continuing.
Deep laughs like that do wonders for a person.

It's Official!

I'm a student again. I'm registered (phew!) for my class that starts Monday morning, and I've paid my tuition (whimper!). I'm excited about it but a little nervous about finding the time to balance everything without short changing Brian.

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for the opportunity to learn new techniques at work, even
when it means 13 hour days now and then.

I'm thankful that the registrar at U of Fl is being very helpful with
all the problems occurring with my attempts to register for my course
this fall. You know, the one that starts Monday...

I'm thankful that Percy still wants loads of snuggles. Until Brian
gets home, of course! :)

I'm thankful Brian doesn't start at 5:30am every day.

I'm thankful for the yummy cherry tomatoes from the garden.

I'm very thankful that the *cough actual, not at top of blog*
countdown to Disneyworld is in single digits!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for a job that I love, even if it does sometimes require
12 hour days.

I'm thankful for my husband, who is willing to spoil me rotten after a
rough day.

I'm thankful that the heat has broken so we can make yummy, yummy spice cake.

I'm thankful for the purring cat that's demanding my attention.

I'm thankful my vacation starts in 2 more weeks.

Traffic!

Last night on the way home there was a rather large accident on one of
the main roads (Rt. 25 for locals) involving downed wires. Brian and
I encountered it shortly after it had occurred. All we could see was
about a dozen emergency vehicles spread over about a half mile of
road. While crawling through an improvised local laneway detour I
heard what is possibly the scariest traffic report I've ever heard,
even after living in NJ/NY for almost 10 years. The radio traffic
reports were advising people to turn around, go back to Rt 347 and
take it south to Portion Rd to go around.

For those local to me, you'll understand the full horror of this. For
those of you not on Long Island, think of the worst, most congested
road in your area and make it twice as bad. Then double that. If you
take 347 during regular rush hours (3:30pm-7pm), expect a travel speed
of roughly 6 miles/hour. On a normal night… For those of you in NJ,
it's worse than Route 1. By a fair margin. And they were advising
people who have finally, blissfully gotten off Rt 347 to get right
back on and go back ~ 3 miles. I think if I'd been crawling on 347
and heard that I'd have just pulled in some place and gone for dinner.
Though as it turns out, that wouldn't have helped much. The accident
and repairs were serious enough that they still hadn't reopened Rt. 25
this morning when I left for work.

On the flip side of that, however, was my drive into work today. I've
started getting up really early so I can miss most of the traffic.
Given that Rt. 25 was still closed this morning, I expected my normal
route to have more traffic than normal. So I left ~15 minutes early.
Apparently, no-one else had that idea. I'm bombing down the leftmost
lane on the Long Island Expressway (another road deservedly notorious
for its traffic nightmares) in fairly light traffic and realize that
I'm just not keeping up with the cars in my lane. And I *think* I'm
going fast enough that I shouldn't be acting like a cork in the left
lane. (Cork, as in bottleneck, as in everyone is pulling into the
middle lane to blow past me…) I look down at my speedometer to double
check and discover that I'm doing 80mph. And being left behind like
I'm standing still. On the LIE. Which is a 55mph highway…

August Update (almost on the 1st!)

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
Fall of Atlantis (three books in one combined volume)
2 more "Bones" mysteries

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?
Royal Pains (cute but forgettable)
Warehouse 13 (see above…)
Zombie Strippers (you don't want to know)

What special days did I celebrate and how?
None particularly, but our anniversary is coming up this week.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?
Lots more birthday cards/calls.
Baby card for Ciara.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
Same lingering sinus infection from last update.  I'm going back to
the Dr. on the 5th again about it.  I do not want to still have it
when we head to Disney.  Ruptured eardrums are no fun.
Brian got his custom orthotics from the podiatrist, so he's getting
adjusted to them.

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
Loads of card/games with the Henagans.
Made reverse/resist dyed shirts for Disney.
Finished Fantasy Triptych!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?
New citrus marinade for chicken on the bbq.  Yum.
Grilled Mahi-Mahi in my ongoing attempt to work more seafood into our
diet.  Not so yum…

What special or unusual purchases did I make?
See next question down…

What were this month's disappointments?
Brian's DM being a complete jerk about vacation time.  He's had the
same week booked off for Disney since April 1st.  We leave Sept. 19th.
The new restaurant is now scheduled to open Sept. 15th.  Guess who
just had his vacation time effectively cancelled?  So we've had to
rebook the trip and are now going earlier.  But we had less than 3
days to replan everything or be charged change fees.  Thankfully, we
pressed DM for an answer so we could avoid them.  Once I actually
remember to do so from home (no access from work) I'll update the
ticker above to show the correct date.

What were my accomplishments this month?
Rebooking our entire Disney trip on no notice and managing to even get
most of our dining reservations that we'd had with the original trip.
Having FANTASTIC Disney customer service even allow us to keep the
free dining on the trip even though that promotion is now over.  That
phone call deserves it's own blog post!  And, because of the change in
airfare over the long weekend, it was actually cheaper to stay two
more nights than to come back after 9 days like originally planned.
And since it incorporates the long weekend, I *just* have enough days
off to do it.  I'd been saving one in reserve for unplanned
emergencies.

Anything else noteworthy to record?
Not that comes to mind immediately…

What made me smile this month?
Fresh peas from the garden.
Realizing that because of the rebooking, I'd be at my Happiest Place
on Earth in exactly a month.  (Can you tell I've been living for this
vacation?)
Surpassing the 10 pound mark on my weight loss goals.
Holding Ciara and managing both to get her to burp (twice!) and have
her fall asleep in my arms.