Furbaby Joey

If you want to know how Joey's day was yesterday (and mine and Curt's) click here to read his blog post.

Joey is OK now, but he gave us a little scare. But he is an old man and these things are gonna happen.

I hate that he is getting old and we have to deal with this stuff. But that's life.

Drinking, vegging that cold away

Work, come home and lounge, work, come home and lounge ...

That has been my week. At some point on Monday I realized I was coming down with a cold. (Though now when I think back at how tired I was on Sunday I think I was already coming down with the cold then.) When I am sick I don't work out. I have been trying to take it easy to conquer this cold.

I have been getting up every day at 5, getting to work about 7:15. Work until 4:15 and jump on the shuttle with a mug of tea and head home. Once home I have been lounging around, watching TV/movies and messing around on the Internet.

I have had so much juice, water and tea (with honey) this week. I am gonna float away.

Yesterday was the day I felt the worse. Yet I was still able to function and go to work. I started feeling a lot better today.

I am going a little stir crazy, especially with just coming home and trying to stay low-key. Of course, our house is a pit! (I think Joey is loving all the lying around an vegging.)

I haven't been blogging as much here. But Go Fit Girl! is really coming along. Curt and I have been doing a lot of work on it. And there are more things coming. Go Fit Girl! is on Twitter and Facebook. Check it out now, so you can say you knew Go Fit Girl! when. ;)

Holy #*%$!!!!

This afternoon we had a decent sized earthquake hit. I yelled out a profanity or two and took the Lord's name in vain. It is hard describe what an earthquake feels like. They aren't all alike. Once Curt and I experienced a rolling earthquake at home, which was probably the freakiest for me.

Today it felt like someone dropped something really heavy on top of our building and then the building shook. There was a boom and a shake.

It was first reported as a 3.8, but downgraded to a 3.7. The 'quake was pretty close to my new office in South San Francisco, which is also near the San Francisco airport.

ShedRain rocks!

In the Sunday travel section of the Chronicle a gear item is always reviewed. Sometime last year I read about a compact umbrella, which is great for travel. It is made to take the wind pretty well yet will still blow inside out, but pop right back in place and not be damaged.

I bought one last year and it worked really well until a piece of it broke and I couldn't get it to stay open. Of course, I took forever to return it. I finally did about three weeks ago and I received a package back today: a brand new umbrella! If you live somewhere windy and rainy, this is the umbrella for you. And ShedRain is based in Portland. I should have told them I would stop by and pick it up. :)

Naps, wine, good food, beer

On Friday both Curt and I worked from home. I am going to try to make that a regular occurrence on Fridays. The past Friday worked out pretty well. I got a lot done with few interruptions.

Friday was also Joey's birthday. He turned 17. Joey's gifts were a fake mouse, which claims to make real-life mouse sounds, and Cat Sip, which is milk that cats can actually drink and digest. In Joey's old age (84 in human years) he is starting to go deaf. So the real-life mouse sounds don't mean much to him. (<----There's Joey checking out his new toy.)

Saturday night I had dinner with some girlfriends from the gym to celebrate a couple of birthdays. We had good food and good wine. It was a fun night.

Today was relaxing and lazy. Curt's friend Toni came over to watch soccer this morning. He brought us some Mexican pastries from the Mission. Yum! Eventually Alexa came over to hang out. Unfortunately it was right when I had to leave for my yoga class.

After yoga Curt and I headed to McNally's. I had one beer and then was ready for a nap.

So that's what I did, came home and napped and lounged and watched Lifetime.

I talked to both the moms today. Today was Marilyn's birthday. Sounds like she had a good day and a great birthday weekend.

I was hoping to tackle the pit of the spareroom in our place. But I didn't. Maybe next weekend.

Almost bedtime ...

8:53 p.m. and I am getting sleepy and it is near my bedtime. When you get up at 5 a.m. bedtime comes way too quickly every night.

Though it seems OK so far.

I worked out in the work gym before taking the 5:30 shuttle home. Once home I chatted with Marilyn for a bit. Then jumped in the shower, made dinner, did the dishes, got my gym bag ready and my clothes ready for work tomorrow.

Now I am watching Army Wives and blogging. And soon I will jump in the sack and hopefully have some sweet dreams.

I posted a wiener dog race video yesterday. This link is so much more clear. Check it out.

Oh, and at work today I got a delivery. I second bouquet of flowers from Marilyn and Ed. There was a mistake in ordering the first bouquet and Marilyn wanted to make sure I got flowers at work. So I got a second beautiful bouquet today that is sitting on my desk. How special does one girl feel when she gets flowers at work and at home?

Gym, dogs, horses, beer, nachos, garden, soccer weekend

Yesterday after the gym Curt and I headed to Golden Gate fields for the Wiener dog races. (Video above.) Oh man, it was so much fun. In between each dog race was a horse race. I had never been to the race track before. It was a fun and interesting experience.

It was a warm sunny day. We watched funny and beautiful animals run. We had beer. We ate hot dogs and nachos. I also ran into a friend and co-worker there. We watched eight dog races and seven horse races. We didn't stay to see the champion wiener dog.

After the race track we headed to a nursery in Berkeley to get some stuff for our garden.

This morning a friend and co-worker of Curt's game over to watch some soccer. He was nice and super polite and gave me some great ideas for Go Fit Girl!

After yoga today Curt and I put the garden in. We planted tomatoes, broccoli, Brussles sprouts (that's the experiment), Edamame (another experience), lettuce and some herbs. And from this pic you can see our pineapple repotted.

After the garden we had to reward ourselves with a beer at McNally's.

After the beer we headed to Market Hall and got some yummy stuff for dinner tonight and likely some leftovers as well.

Now it is just getting ready for tomorrow, going through some mail, laundry and other exciting and fun stuff.

Have I mentioned that I still can't believe I have been getting up at 5 a.m. for work. It's insane.

Survived my first week as a commuter

As the shuttle today was pulling in front of the Emeryville building to drop us off someone announced, we survived the first week!

The commutes this week have varied from not so bad to slightly annoying. Nothing major yet.

I love the building, my work area and all the amenities provided. The location just sucks. And commuting, bleh! Most of my adult life I have had very short commutes. When we were in Phoenix for about a year and a half I had a 15-mile commute to work. But it was for second shift--so the traffic wasn't that bad. But I have pretty much lived within 5 miles of work when I lived in Oregon, a good portion of my time in Phoenix and here in the Bay Area for the past six years.

I still can't believe I have been making the 6:45 a.m. shuttles most of this week.

And the other thing, I am finding it difficult to get my work done in just 8 hours. (I am used of working much longer hours when my commute was just 15 minutes and about 4 miles.) But I am working on my time management. (Also, my exercise is totally messed up. Hope to get a routine going next week.)

I got a surprise yesterday/today at work. I got a call from the front desk at the Emeryville building that I had a delivery. They were supposed to redeliver at my new work address. But I got a call later from the florist. They asked if I lived in the East Bay as they would redeliver to my house. So I came home today to some beautiful flowers from Ed and Marilyn sending me good wishes at my new work office. So sweet. I am really touched that they did that. Thanks, guys!

A few photos are here of my new office. I am sure I will take more and post them at some point.

Support Me!

At work I was guilted into joining the MMRF Race for Research. The walk/run is Sunday.

I signed up as a virtual walker, as I did last year. Though last year I was in London at the time of the race.

For a variety of reasons I don't want to actually run (most definitely not!) or walk on Sunday. Since I won't be running or walking I plan on doing the virtual walk from the couch. If you would like to sponsor me and my couch sitting and TV watching (as I might as well try to raise some money) please check out my page.

If you can support me that would be great. If not, I totally understand. I know times are tough.

What is worse?

Long commute ...

Waking up way too early (2-3 hours before really necessary) ...

Raging headaches ...

The past three days I have had one or two or three of those.

Commuting in the Bay Area is tricky and can vary. The past three days my evening commutes have gone from 45 minutes to a little more than an hour. Morning commutes are about 30 minutes. I have either taken in the 7:45 or 6:45 a.m. shuttles. Coming home has been either the 4:15 or 5:30 p.m. shuttle.

Monday had the raging headache. Tuesday slight. Today I woke up with one and then took an Advil and it was gone.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 4 a.m. Today at 3 a.m.

(Also, I am used to working at the minimum of 8 hours. It is really difficult to get my work done in 8 hours, I am finding. I eventually hope to get into a different groove.)

Tonight Curt and I had dinner and beers with our friend Jacob (who now lives with his wife, Aileen, in Chicago). I had two beers and I am about ready to pass out. I hope I sleep better tonight. I don't function well with fewer than 7 hours sleep.

If this post doesn't make sense it is because I am so tired I am about to pass out.

Good night.

Raging headache

Yesterday most of the day I had a slight headache. It got worse and then better and then worse again. By the time I left work it was starting to get worse. Once on the shuttle bus back to Emeryville it got pretty bad along with waves of nausea. And I normally don't get car sick. I can even read while in a moving vehicle and feel fine. So I think the headache is what contributed to my yuckiness.

The ride took an hour. I am hoping that is not a regular occurrence as I want to make the 6:30 spin class a night or two a week.

Once I got home I just lounged on the couch, had some water and eventually Curt made us some comfort food of penne and Chicken Corn Chowder. After that I felt fine. (I was actually planning to have a beer and watch a NCAA tourney championship game. I didn't feel up to the beer and the basketball was boring!)

Today I noticed a slight headache starting this morning. I took an Advil and I seemed to keep it at bay and just a dull headache the whole day.

I was talking to some co-workers and they were saying they think that the new carpet and furniture could be contributing to it. Apparently I am not the only one having these headaches.

I am sensitive to smells. But I didn't realize this sensitive. And there is some foofy automatic air freshner in the bathroom, which seems to trigger the headache as I enter. (I need to stop drinking so much water!)

Let's see how tomorrow goes.

First Day of School!

That's kinda what today felt like.

I drove to my old work building and stood outside with some of my co-workers waiting for the shuttle to drive us to our new building in South San Francisco.

The new building is GORGEOUS! I thought Onyx was fancy before. Heck no! This is a whole other dimension.

I never even took the whole tour. I saw most of the fourth floor--which is the floor I sit on. And I saw a good portion of the first--spent some time in our swanky cafeteria where there are THREE kinds of hot sauce provided: Tabasco, Tapatio and Rooster sauce. In the cafeteria, which will also be used for Town Hall meetings, there were projector screens and TVs hanging around with CNN, morning shows and soaps. We just looked at the gym through the window of the door. That looks pretty amazing as well. The Board Room has a 103 inch TV. It's HUGE. I poked my head in there and was so excited to see it.

Tomorrow I plan to do some more walking around and scope out the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Somehow I ended up with a really nice cube--which really isn't a cube, but more like an area. I am near a window. There is so much natural light, it's great. I had many people coming by jealous of my cube. I just lucked out and got a good spot.

I am still not excited about the commute. The ride there only took about 30 minutes. The ride back to Emeryville took about an hour--which is gonna screw with my 6:30 p.m. spin class. It will be trial and error for the next week or two.

10 reasons why I am willing to ...

at least triple, quadruple or even more my work commute:

(My company headquarters shut down Friday afternoon and moved from Emeryville to South San Francisco over the weekend. Tomorrow we show up at our new office in SSF.)

1. I need a job.

2. I have a really great team who are my co-workers and my friends.

3. My boss is great, so opposite of a micromanager and trusts I can do my work and knows that I know what I am doing.

4. He has a great boss, who is head of our Legal department.

5. I am still learning so much in my current position, from my boss, my co-workers and from the person who reports to me.

6. I recently became a supervisor.

7. My company is striving to do good things for people with cancer.

8. I feel like I am learning and growing every day.

9. This is my second career and Patent Paralegals are in high demand. So the more experience I get the better I can advance in the future.

10. I can't afford the career I truly desire, a lady who lunches.

Because my company moved over the weekend, our Emeryville office closed early on Friday. I decided to treat myself to a mani/pedi and a little shopping. After that I headed home to watch some shows, took a little nap and then headed to a 5 p.m. yoga class, which was a new experience for me (Forrest Yoga) and I loved it. Looking forward to taking that class again. After I left yoga I noticed I had a text from Curt to join him at McNally's. So I did, for one beer.

Saturday was filled with gym, grocery, vet visit for Joey, basketball watching and Lifetime watching.

Sundays are really the only loungy mornings I have. So that is just what I did. Then I headed to

my late morning Vinyasa yoga class. Curt and I have been watching the Decorah eagles and their baby chicks. One more chick to hatch. We noticed one baby yesterday and a second today. The third egg is cracked and getting ready.

Today Curt repotted our Maui Gold pineapple. It has been growing and needed a bigger home. (And we don't want it in our garden plot--when we move we are taking that with us!) We plan to put in the rest of the garden next weekend. After that we headed to McNally's to visit our bartender John and have a beer. Curt grabbed us burgers near by so we had a good beer and a good burger and then came home.

Now I am doing laundry (already cleaned the kitchen and bathroom), went through a pile of mail (found some bills to pay) and will soon start getting ready for my day and week. (For the work move I brought home a lot of personal items--so I need to figure out what I just have to have for tomorrow and pack that up.)